Sucked In
by TangeloTime
Summary: This is a rewrite of a deleted story. Hikari, a mostly normal girl, ends up in the Narutoverse, where she runs into trouble with both Konoha and the Akatsuki, finds love, and maybe, starts discovering herself. Continued inside. Discontinued
1. Chapter 1

Guess what!!! Today is the anniversary of the first chapter ever of Sucked in!! Seriously, go check the publish date for the original version. I thought it would be fitting if I started this new story on the same day. And I just finished my first evah….AP exam!!!!! US government you know? We had to write 4 whole essays!!! By hand!!! On these tiny table thingies that you can flip out in the theater…not fun. But now that it's over …more time for !!! YAY!!!!!!!!

Yeah…. Soo….This is my first rewritten chapter! Also, I have decided to condense the first three chapters since… they're really short. I also got a beta reader. Yeah, she's got a little intro paragraph at the end, read it if you want to.

So, a few changes that I'm making. I want to make this fic less crackish. And more realistic, so that means Hikari is going to pretend she knows nothing. I also want to focus a bit more on Hikari's emotions instead of just running through the story. Yeah sure. If you have any problems with that, just tell me. I might change it I most likely will not. If I'm not, just stick to the original and don't read this one.

Oh, and Hikari is slightly older in this one since someone brought up that the age difference between Hikari and Itachi is like seven years and that was practically half Hikari's age. That means Hikari will have to be slightly more mature. She'll probably be around 15, maybe.

And I'm leaving out the Inners since they only appeared in the beginning of the fic and didn't do anything the rest of the time.

For newbies, I shall post a summary here because there isn't enough space outside...

Summary: Girl called Hikari. Ends up in the Naruto world. She is big fan, knows things and stuff. Through 'A series of Unfortunate Events,' she winds up getting kidnapped by none other than the big bad Uchiha Itachi!!!!!! SPOILERS!!!!!!!! Don't like em don't read this. Geez really suck at summaries don't I.

Okay then, I'm just going to copy and paste my disclaimers because and I'm too lazy to come up with new ones. Seriously, who wants to have to write 16 new disclaimers? Okay then, time to get started…

DISCLAIMER: well, I guess I'll make Jiriya do the disclaimer

Jiriya: Why do I have to do this?!?!?!?!?

Hikari: 'Cause I said so. DO IT. looms over, thunder crackles, lightning flashes

Jiriya: okay okay, I'll do it. Hikari does not own Naruto or any of the characters.

……Well, that certainly was one of my shorter disclaimers.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Yaaaa!!!! NOOOOO!!!! Kakashi!!!! YOU CAN'T DIE IN THAT WAY!!! DON'T DIE!!!!!!"

A girl was on her bed, screaming into a manga book. She had black hair with red streaks and was wearing a red sweater and jeans.

"Hikari!! Stop screaming! It's just a book!"

An angry shout filtered through the closed door.

"But Mom! Kakashi got buried in a bunch of rubble!!! A great ninja can't die that way!!!! It's too stupid!!!"

"I don't care!! It's 11 o'clock!! Go to bed already!!!"

Hikari swung off of her bed and walked out the door to give her mom a telling off… only to find her mom wasn't outside the door. In fact, her house wasn't outside the door either.

Hikari gasped and looked around. She was in a huge forest with over towering trees. It wasn't even 11 o'clock anymore as there was sunlight streaming through the leaves. She spun back towards the door…..only to find it was gone.

"Oh shit."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Team 7 was once again waiting for their incredibly late teacher.

"Argh!" moaned Naruto, "When is Kakashi-sensei going to come?!?"

"He's probably going to come whenever he finishes one of those pervy books of his." Sakura looked incredibly bored.

"Nooooo……I'm sooooooo bored…" Naruto groaned and flopped onto the ground.

They were in for a long wait.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari was panicking. She didn't know where she was, there wasn't any signs of civilization around, she had absolutely nothing to survive on, and-omigoshwasthatwastotallyredcloudsonablackcloakthatcanonlymeanonething, AKATSUKI!!!!

"_Well,_" Hikari thought, "_At least there's people here, crazy cosplayers or not._"

She crept cautiously towards the place she saw the flutter of cloth and ducked behind a tree.

"Why do we have to do the stinkin' espionage mission? Leader-sama should have gotten some of the newbies to do it."

"Kisame. Shut up."

Silence.

Hikari peeked out from her hiding place and saw the two figures that were cloaked in black walking towards her, well, at least towards her tree. She ducked back behind.

"_They're only crazy cosplayers, they're only crazy cosplayers,_" Hikari chanted in her mind while squeezing her eyes shut and crossing her fingers. Her gut was telling her that these people were not good news.

More silence.

Carefully, cautiously, Hikari opened her eyes and saw red and black.

"_Uh oh,"_

She looked up into Itachi's eyes and fell victim to his spinning Sharingan.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Itachi watched impassively as the strange girl collapsed on the ground. Kisame, who was standing next to him, wondered aloud, "What did you do that for? She probably didn't even know who we are. She doesn't look like a ninja…"

"Why do you care? Getting sentimental?" Itachi swept off into the forest.

Kisame looked shocked for a second before stumbling after him, "No, you asshole! I was just curious!"

_**Zipideedooda**_

"HINATA!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!! I FOUND THE CAT!!!!!!!" Kiba was shouting for all he was worth. In his arms was a squirming, struggling cat. "Dammit, why do we have to do this mission, isn't it usually Naruto's team that does this?"

"I wouldn't know." Shino adjusted his glasses.

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Ah."

There was an awkward pause before, "HINAAAAAAATAAAAA!!!!!!"

This time there was a response. Hinata came crashing through the bushes and stuttered out, "T-there's a g-girl who's unconscious, we h-have to help h-her!"

"What?"

That too, was a rhetorical question. Hinata turned around and sped off as Kiba and Shino dropped the cat to follow her. Together, the three genin crashed through the bushes to find this mysterious and unconscious girl.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Hn?" muttered Hikari blearily. Her head hurt like crap, her vision was blurred, and she didn't remember how she got unconscious. Why the hell was she in a forest? She woke up to see… a puppy? It was licking her face. It looked familiar somehow, like she'd seen it before…hmm…isn't it Akamaru?

Wait a minute, Akamaru?

That means…Hikari looked around in shock to see three concerned faces, faces she could put names to. Hinata, Kiba, Shino. That must mean……she was in the Naruto world. Her eyes widened in shock. The information was a bit too much for her. Hikari passed out again. The three genin exchanged glances before nodding in agreement: they needed to get this girl to Konoha and fast.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari woke up in a hospital room, one that looked very much like the ones that Naruto was always in. Sunlight was streaming through the window and she could see the expanse of Konohakagure. She put her hands on her head. It still pulsed faintly of a headache.

"Ugh," she moaned. "Guess that means it wasn't a dream." How was she supposed to get back home? How did she get here in the first place? Why did she end up unconscious in the first place?

There was a flash of pain and Hikari clutched at her head. But she remembered something about red clouds on black cloth. From this, any Narutard could figure out that the Akatsuki had something to do with the …incident. Maybe she encountered them in the forest and then they knocked her out or something like that. Whatever. She needed to find out what they were going to do and then try and stop them. Not to mention she needed to keep them from finding out she knew they were up to something.

Another flash of pain. Someone's voice filtered through. _"why…espionage…newbies…"_ That probably meant that someone was watching the village, she didn't know who, but they were probably the ones who knocked her out. She needed to make sure that whoever was watching didn't suspect that she knew anything about the Akatsuki. Only one way to do that.

The door to her room opened and Shizune came in, carrying a tray filled with food.

"Ah!" exclaimed Shizune, "I see you're awake! Would you like something to eat?"

Hikari's stomach grumbled as she realized she was ravenous. "Thanks! I'm starving!"

Shizune chuckled and set the tray on her lap, then sat down beside the bed. On the tray, there was a bowl of soup, several dinner rolls and a few sticks of dango. Hikari's mouth watered.

"Oh man, what do I eat first?"

"Take your time. But meanwhile, care to tell me anything about yourself? We don't know anything about you, you know. It doesn't look like you're from this village and Team 8 found you unconscious outside in the forest."

Hikari dipped a roll into her soup and tore off a piece with her teeth. After she swallowed she said, "What about you? I don't even know your name." She cringed mentally. _I hope that was convincing. Never been a particularly good liar._

"Yeah, I guess that was rude of me. My name is Shizune, I work for the Godaime Hokage, and you are in Konohakagure. Your turn."

"Um…well," said Hikari, stalling for time. _"Gotta think of a good lie, gotta think of a good lie!!!"_

"Um, my name is Atomi Hikari, I think I'm fifteen years old and I don't remember much else." _I hope she believed it. They would never believe me if I said that I was from another dimension._

Shizune looked dismayed. "I was hoping you could at least tell us how you got to be unconscious, but if you can't remember…" She stood up to leave.

"No wait! I think I remember something!" Hikari cursed to herself. She wanted to get close to some of the ninjas, hopefully genin- she knew them the best, not to mention she thought it would be really cool to meet her anime heroes. "I think someone was chasing me…"

Shizune sat back down. Her eyes told Hikari that she wanted to know more.

"Umm, I don't remember really well, but," _Time to play the I'm-really-scared-card, _thought Hikari grimly, "But, it was really scary, and it was dark and loud and and, and…"

Seeing Shizune becoming more concerned, Hikari broke off and started shivering.

Shizune got up and started to comfort her. "It's all right, I'm sure Tsunade-sama, our Hokage, will get someone to protect you."

Hikari looked up with wide eyes. "Really, you think so?" She put as much hope into her voice as possible.

"Yes, I'll go ask her now. Okay, stay here and finish your soup, I'll be back soon." With that, Shizune walked out the door.

As soon as she left, Hikari broke into a wide grin. _Maybe my bullshitting skills aren't as bad as I thought. I should be an actor!_

_**Zipideedooda**_

In the Hokage's office, a busty blonde was looking very bored.

Shizune was rambling, "-really scared and maybe she has an abusive family or boyfriend or -are you listening to me?" she suddenly demanded.

Tsunade immediately sat upright and said, "No, I mean, yes I heard everything you said, now-what-was-it-you-wanted-me-to-do?" really fast.

Shizune sighed. "The girl that Team 8 has brought in seems to have lost her memory and was probably chased around by something that caused a loss of memory. Since this girl doesn't seem to have anything special, it was probably an abusive relationship that got out of hand or something. Whatever it was, it really scared her and I told her that we could get some ninja to try and protect her."

"Geez," whined the Hokage, "Why did you promise her something that you couldn't guarantee? Getting someone to protect her means more paperwork for me."

Shizune got very angry. "Does the safety of an amnesic girl mean less to you then doing more of what you're supposed to be doing?"

Tsunade got very uncomfortable. "Well, I didn't say that, but-"

Shizune glared.

"Fine," Tsunade sighed, "I'll get the little brat's team to do it. He's more trouble than he's worth. Maybe taking care of the girl will teach him some responsibility."

Shizune smiled.

_**Zipideedooda**_

The sun was shining brightly over the heads of team seven. Naruto had finally managed to pick a fight with Sasuke so they were duking it out on the training field while Sakura was cheering Sasuke on.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Sasuke blew a giant fireball in Naruto's direction.

"GAH!!" shouted Naruto as he dodged. "Sasuke, you bastard, that could have fried me!!"

The commotion made sure that Kakashi's entrance was unnoticed.

"You guys have a mission," he drawled.

At the sound of a mission, Naruto snapped to attention and practically rushed his teacher. "Are we escorting the Daimyo through dangerous territory?!?!?!? Are we protecting a princess from a faraway land?!!? Huh? Huh?"

The answer was short and simple.

"No."

"Awww…"

"Our mission is to guard a 15 year old girl while she regains her memory. Apparently, she lost it after being chased through the woods by someone, she can't remember who. Since this girl has no money, we have to do this for free! Also, we'll all be living together!!" Kakashi's single eye turned all happy as he radiated family togetherness. "Isn't that nice?"

"WHAAAAAAAAT!?!?!" exclaimed both the boys simultaneously, "I HAVE TO LIVE WITH HIM!?!?!" they screamed while pointing at each other

"…"

"STOP COPYING ME!!!"

As the two boys started to fight again, Kakashi said, "Sakura, after those two break it up, tell them to be at the Hokage's office in half an hour." With that, Kakashi poofed out. Sakura sighed. _Why do I have to take care of these idiots…_

_**Zipideedooda**_

In the next half an hour, Sakura managed to get the two boys apart and made them promise not to fight, get a change of clothes, and be at the Hokage's office in half an hour. It was quite a battle. However, in half an hour, team seven, minus Kakashi (as usual) was promptly in Tsunade's office.

"Baa-chan, who's this girl we have to protect? Why can't we get a better mission? And most importantly, why do I have to live with him!" complained Naruto while pointing at Sasuke.

Tsunade sighed. "This girl is called Hikari. She's fifteen and she was chased around a dark forest sometime 2 days ago and lost her memory due to some obscure incident. That's all she remembers but from her reaction to the memory, it must have scared her badly. Shizune wanted me to assign a couple ninja to protect her from her unknown assailant because of sentimentality."

Shizune blushed.

"Also, Hikari-san doesn't have any money so you will be doing this for free. Of course I'm sure Kakashi has already addressed you about that."

The three genin looked slightly disgruntled.

"However, during this mission, you can take other missions as well, so long as one of you stays with Hikari-san."

Team 7 looked considerably happier about that.

"Besides, Hikari-san has already volunteered to help with housework and the cooking, so you will have more time for missions. It's just time now for you to meet your client."

With that, the door opened and a girl with black hair with red streaks in it walked in. She was wearing a dirty red sweater and dirty jeans. Her clear brown eyes passed over the three genin. She put out her hand.

"Hello, my name is Hikari, what's yours?"

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hi, this is dreamkinen. Hikari1994, whom I call hikari-chan to not mix up with Hi-chan, whom I also edited a chapter for(her username is HikariRosalie), asked me to be her beta…er for the rewrite of her story. I decided not to add funny editor's notes(see HikariRosalie's 3rd chapter of her story, random twilight shizz) into the story in case she killed me for it. Hi people!

(She put comments in anyways. I deleted them.)

So yeah, this seemed to be a good enough place to stop as any. It certainly would be less dramatic if she went through the old plot and went straight to the nicknames. And she's wearing her old dirty clothes simply because she can't go meet her bodyguards in a hospital gown. You have probably all noticed that Hikari's character changed quite a bit from the old Hikari. Less crazy and all that. But before all you crazy Hikari fans decide to mob me, she will still be rather silly. She just showed a bit of her darker, calculating, more manipulative side in this first one. I could have just kept on writing, but that would be a really long chapter, so I'll give your eyes a break while the page for the next chapter loads. So yeah. Read and review people!!!! You guys are awesome!!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, here I am again. Hopefully, your eyes have been rested while this page loaded and now you're ready to continue reading. I wanted to work out the relationship between Team 7 and Hikari, but I drew a blank. So I'm gonna wing it and hope it comes out all right. So right, disclaimer…..

DISCLAIMER: hmm, who should I make do the disclaimer? light bulb pops over head, runs out of room coming back in dragging along Itachi

Itachi: NO! NO! NO! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME DO IT!!!!!!!! sobs

Hikari: Suck it up and take it like a man! Your first appearance is in this chapter. If you don't do it, you won't show up at all!(this is most obviously an old disclaimer since Itachi appeared in the last chapter….)

Itachi: sob….fine….Hikari does not own Naruto or any of the characters. The only thing she does own is the OC and the plot.

_**Zipideedooda**_

_Woah,_ thought Hikari, _They're a little younger than I would have thought._

She had thought they would be older, minus Sasuke.

_But then again, Akamaru was still small and Hinata still had short hair,_ she thought.

While she was doing so, Sakura, seeing her teammates not attempting to make contact, stepped up and shook her hand.

"Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura. The orange idiot back there is Naruto,"

"HEY!!"

"The other guy is Sasuke-kun, and our teacher is Kakashi-sensei."

Hikari smiled at them. "Nice to meet you guys."

Naruto turned towards the Hokage. "Why can't we have a more difficult mission? Anybody can protect someone like her! I want a mission worthy of the great Naruto-sama!!"

Hikari grabbed Naruto in a headlock and started to noogy. "Anybody can protect someone like her?!? You realize that is quite insulting…" Annoyance gleamed from Hikari's eyes. "Well, take this!!"

Hikari started noogying harder.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!! GET OFFA ME YOU STUPID WITCH!!!!"

Everyone watched in amusement as Hikari managed to make Naruto lose a few more brain cells.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Hehe!" Hikari chattered cheerfully with Sakura while Naruto was trailing behind with a huge bump on his head.

"Kari-chan, we need you to get some new clothes. Those are completely ruined."

"Yeah I know. I must have fallen sometime. But I don't have any money and I couldn't go meet you guys in a hospital gown…That would be too embarrassing."

"True, but we can solve that! Let's go shopping!"

The guys groaned.

After two hours of many "No, that's not right," and "Ewww, definitely not!" and "Yes! That's perfect!" Hikari had found a wardrobe.

When she stepped out of the dressing room, she was wearing a black, elbow length, fingerless gloves, a no-sleeve, red chineseish shirt and kaki pants as well as black ninja boots.

Hikari looked at herself in the mirror. "HA!" she exclaimed, "I look kinda like a ninja!!"

A horrified saleswoman had taken away Hikari's clothes to be burned while she had been putting on her new clothes, but Hikari fought for them.

"NO! Give me my clothes back!!"

Exasperated, the saleswoman tried to reason with her. "Sweetie-"

"Don't you sweetie me!" snarled Hikari and tugged harder on her old clothes.

"Honey, you need to let go of old tattered clothes like this." The saleswoman strained to get the clothes away from the dimensional traveler.

"No way! Am I supposed to give up the only thing I have from my past?!" With a great tug, Hikari tried to get the clothes from her stubborn adversary.

The force of the pull yanked the saleswoman to the ground. "What are you talking about? You must have more clothes at home?"

Hikari looked like she would bite her opponent's face off. Finally, Sakura stepped in. Gently, she disengaged the saleswoman's hand from the tattered garments.

"Let her keep them," she said, "It won't do any harm."

Disgruntled the saleswoman let go of the clothes, brushed herself off and disappeared into the racks of clothes.

While Hikari grumbled and hugged her clothes closer. Sakura tried to grin as she pulled Kakashi to the cash register. "C'mon! We've gotta get these things paid for!"

Kakashi sighed. Why did he have to pay for these things?

Hikari sighed. Why did that stupid lady have to get into her business?

Naruto and Sasuke groaned. Why did they have to be the pack mules?

_**Zipideedooda**_

Team 7 plus Hikari were standing outside, Kakashi with a much emptied wallet.

"Sooooooooooooooo……where are we going now? We have to live with each other somehow."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Oh c'mon guys! We have to live somewhere? Who's house should we stay at?"

"Sasuke is not going to stay in MY house!!" shouted Naruto, "Not an ice cube's chance in hell is Sasuke going to stay in my apartment!"

"No one would want to stay in your apartment. It's barely decent enough for pigs."

"Hey! That's not true!"

"Naruto," said Kakashi, "We've all seen the inside of your apartment. Nobody wants to stay there."

"Well then," demanded Hikari, "Who's house are we staying at?!"

"Well," Sakura said, "I refuse to sleep in Naruto's apartment."

There were several nods of assent.

"I also," she continued, "Refuse to see what kind of reading material Kakashi- sensei keeps in his house."

Kakashi sweatdropped.

"And since my little brother just started teething, my mom's been driven insane. I doubt anyone wants to stay in my house," Sakura stated stubbornly.

Hikari sweatdropped. _Never knew she had any siblings…Guess there are some things the manga doesn't tell you._

"Umm…I guess that means we're staying at Sasuke's house."

"No."

"C'mon Sasuke, where else are we supposed to stay???" whined Naruto.

"Not my problem."

"Of course it is," prompted Kakashi, "It's our mission, and you have to stay with us."

"Yeah," Hikari put in, "Or would you rather we all crash in Naruto's pig sty? It probably isn't very big…"

"I do NOT live in a pig sty!!"

"It certainly smells like one."

"…"

"C'mon Sasu-chan… pweease?" asked Hikari with puppy eyes.

"Did you just call me Sasu-chan?" Sasuke spit out the word like it was a toad that somehow managed to sneak into his mouth.

"Yes."

"May I ask you why?" An anger mark twitched in Sasuke's chicken butt hair.

"Because, you're younger than me so I get to call you {-}chan and plain old Sasuke is boring."

"You're logic is screwed!!!" It was becoming quite apparent that Sasuke was getting angrier; there were more anger marks and his face was quickly becoming red.

"Pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasse, pwetty pwease wif a cherry on toooooooooooooooooooop."

"Fine, fine! You can stay at my place…geez…"

"YAY!!!!!"

Hikari happily skipped ahead…before turning around and asked,

"Where's your house?"

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Wooooooow!!!" exclaimed Hikari, "You've got such a big house!!!"

Sasuke looked disgruntled. _I can't believe I let myself be convinced…_

"C'mon Sasuke! Tell us which rooms are ours!!!" Naruto shouted. He was already running around.

Sasuke groaned. "The girls can have the Master bedroom, I get my room, and as long as you guys don't trash anything, you can share any room you want…except that one down the corner."

With that, he stalked to a door, opened it, and slammed it shut.

Naruto leapt up. "C'mon Kakashi-sensei, let's go find a room!!!"

Kakashi sighed and followed his hyperactive student out of the room.

Sakura and Hikari turned to each other.

"Better go find that master bedroom," said Sakura

"Mmm…yeah…"

Together the girls trooped off to find the master bedroom.

_**Zipideedooda**_

The master bedroom was surprisingly big. Sakura was currently filling up the closet while Hikari was lying on the bed, lost in her thoughts.

"_What should I do now? I managed to get into the village with relatively low suspicion…but how will I get home?"_ she thought.

She sighed. _"At least the amnesia excuse will give me enough time to think of a better one…"_

"_Well all I need to do is to bide my time, enough so that they trust me, then come out with the truth. Hopefully they can help me get back home…"_ Hikari winced inwardly. The first step was getting them to believe her. That was going to be hard.

Well at least she'd have some fun.

"Sooooo…Sakura, what can you tell me about your team?"

Sakura looked back, startled.

"Well… Naruto is really loud obnoxious and rude but sometimes, he can really step up to the bat." Sakura plopped down on the bed beside Hikari. "He can be really strong when he's not being an idiot, and he's really unpredictable."

"Sasuke-kun, on the other hand, is really smart and cool and

strong! But sometimes he pushes himself really hard and I worry about him."

"Really?" Hikari sat up. "He seems like a cold-hearted asshole."

Immediately, Sakura flared up. "He's not an asshole!!!"

"So he's cold-hearted."

"I never said that!"

"You didn't deny it either."

"Well he's not! He's just shy!"

"Riiiiight."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Kakashi stood in front of the teenagers in the dining room.

"Okay then, this is how it's going to work," he said, "When we train, Hikari-san can come and watch us."

"When we go on missions, one of you three will have to stay behind with Hikari-san. Don't worry; the person who is staying behind with our client will get a part of the pay as well. You know, since they're doing a mission as well."

"Wait a minute! Why can't you stay behind with her sometime!" raged Naruto.

"Because," Kakashi grinned, "That would be a wonderful waste of my talents."

Hikari sighed and crossed her arms. "Men are so rude."

Sakura sighed as well. "I'm right there beside you."

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Get back here!" Sasuke was chasing Naruto in the training grounds.

Somehow, Naruto managed to upend a bucket of water on his head. Sasuke had gotten angry and Naruto was running. Very fast.

Sakura looked upon the scene and sighed.

Kakashi looked upon the scene and chuckled.

Hikari looked upon the scene and rolled her eyes.

"Gah!!" Sasuke had thrown a handful of kunai at his bright orange target.

"Sasuke you bastard! That could have killed me!"

"That's the point!"

Kakashi sighed and then chucked several kunai at the two and managed to pin them both to tree trunks by their sleeves. "My my, you both are acting extremely immature. As punishment, run around the perimeter of this training area five times."

Then Kakashi got back to his book.

"WAIT!! YOU FORGOT TO GET US DOWN!!"

"Pipe down, will you? This part is getting good."

Sakura sweatdropped.

"Say Kura-chan," said a voice behind her.

Sakura jumped, then saw it was just Hikari.

"What's with the nickname?"

"I like them."

"…"

"Okay then," Hikari continued as if there wasn't a pause. "Whaddaya say to teaching me how to defend myself?"

Sakura was reasonably surprised. "Sure, but what brought this on?"

"Well, I can't rely on you guys all the time, and it looks fun."

Kakashi managed to tear himself away from his book and said, "We might as well teach you some chakra manipulation as well. That way, you can run up a tree if you're getting chased."

"You will?" Hikari jumped on Kakashi and hugged him tightly around the head. "Thank you thank you thank you!!! Haha! You're so cool, Kaka-sensei!"

Hikari ran off yelling behind her, "I'm gonna go cook lunch now!!"

"Aaa...Hikari-chan wait! We can't protect you if you run off like that!!" Sakura chased after the black and red haired girl and Kakashi followed…leaving the two boys stuck to the trees.

"W-WAIT!!!!"

_**Zipideedooda**_

Well, not too bad, not as long as the last chapter. This one was incredibly boring to write. I kept daydreaming about things I would write about later on…yeah okay see ya! R&R!!!!!


	3. Chapter 3

¡Hola! ¿Cómo te llamas? Yeah okay…enough with the Spanish…yeah….anyone notice that llamas in spanish and llamas in english are spelled exactly the same? Anyone of you who has taken Spanish should know what llamas means…Well cómo te llamas at least. I'm not to sure what llamas means in Spanish….even though I'm in Spanish 3b…^.^'I feel like a failure…..oh well the health of my fanfiction does not depend on the health of my Spanish grade….T.T Yeah, even though I recently wrote an essay about Naruto and Sasuke's friendship in Spanish, which I am proud of (can't help boasting a little)…I feel like a failure………

Wow, I never meant to rant on like that. What I really wanted to say was that I'm really sorry for my last chapter….IT SUCKS SO BAD!!!

Okay then, enough moping about my Spanish and on with the disclaimer.

Gaara: Give that back!

Hikari: NO! Not unless you do the disclaimer.

Gaara: Fine cork pops out of gourd

Hikari: HAH! sprays sand with hose I saw a little comic of Rock Lee spraying Gaara with a hose! I know what to do, thanks to a little equation! Water + Sand Mud. Mud A useless sand attack.

Gaara: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kisame: And I thought Hikari had massive lung power!

Hikari: Hey! Who let you in?

Kisame: Okay, Okay I'm going now.

Hikari: Will you do the disclaimer now?

Gaara: sobs only if you give me my gourd back

Hikari: After you do the disclaimer.

Gaara: Fine…Hikari does not own Naruto or any of the characters.

Hikari: Here's you're gourd back and a hairdryer to dry it.

Gaara: THANKS!!

Kisame: snigger

Hikari: You're still here!?!?!?!?! Gaara sic 'em

Gaara: As soon as I'm done drying my sand?

Kisame: …O.O….I'm…I'm going now….

….I like this disclaimer….

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Well guys, what do you want for lunch?"

"I don't know,"

"RAMEN!!!"

"Some spaghetti I guess…"

"Why are you asking me?"

Hikari sighed. "Spaghetti it is."

She started rummaging through the pantry. "Where's the pasta?"

Sasuke scratched his head. "Dunno. Look for it. You'll find it."

Hikari mock gasped. "Is that encouragement? From Sasu-chan?!?!"

"Are you saying that I'm a cold hearted bastard?"

"HA! You admitted it!"

"I did not!"

"I never said anything about you being a cold hearted bastard!"

"Well, if you're not a cold hearted bastard, what are you?! A frozen chicken?"

"…"

"…"

"Hikari-chan, that made no sense at all."

"Yes it does! The back of Sasuke's head looks like a chicken butt and he acts like an ice cube."

"My hair does NOT look like a chicken's butt."

"Notice how he does not deny the fact he acts like an ice cube."

"SHUT UP!!!!!" At this point, Sasuke did not act like an ice cube. In fact, he looked like you could melt a stick of butter on his head.

"Will not. You're just jealous because you don't have the brains to win an argument with me." Hikari stuck out her tongue.

"THAT'S IT!!!!"

Sasuke lunged across the room.

Naruto tried to tackle Sasuke but missed.

Sakura chased after her infuriated teammate but was unsure what to do once she got to him.

Kakashi…well, he wanted to see how it turned out.

Hikari looked kinda shocked at first and then....Hikari smashed her frying pan squarely on Sasuke's forehead, leaving him with a semi-concussion. Sasuke, was completely surprised by her attack and dropped like a wet sack full of cement.

Sakura, who was already on her way there, saw what she had to do. "Sasuke-kun, are you all right!"

Hikari flapped her hand dismissively at the two. "Ah, he'll be alright. I bet he's gotten concussions before." Dazed, Sasuke got up and tottered back to his room.

Hikari moved back to the pantry and began flinging items out in her quest for pasta.

She started to mutter, "Stupid Sasu-chan…always so unfeeling and annoying and childish and…and…" She ran out of insults appropriate for the Uchiha.

The rest of the team sweatdropped.

Hikari finally noticed them.

"Well, go do something else! Watched pots don't boil!"

Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura all went their separate ways.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"_Hmm…whatever shall I do about that little prick…"_ thought Hikari as she absentmindedly stirred the sauce. She had to make it from scratch, even though she had never done it before. She just winged it.

"_I_ _wouldn't want Sasuke's mental health to deteriorate to the point where he betrays the village again."_ She tasted the sauce and deemed it well enough before starting to roll some meatballs.

"_It would be even worse if he really did kill Itachi…Itachi is really cool…Of course, the entire the-peace-of-the-village-is-so-incredibly-important-that-I-will-maryter-myself-and-kill-everyone-I-love-to-save-it thing is a little strange but it's still cool. Though if I ever meet him, he probably wouldn't hesitate in killing me, I mean, to keep the village safe and all, he's gotta stay in the Akatsuki."_

She shivered. _'Not to mention, Itachi can be just plain scary sometimes.'_

"GAA!" The pot with the noodles had started to boil over. Hikari dived over to remove the lid and blew on the frothing mixture.

"_Funny, killing is such a reality here but it still hasn't struck me as reality. Hmmm…maybe I can psychiatric Sasu-chan…"_

She turned off the gas and scooped the spaghetti strands into five bowls. Then, she placed a few meatballs in each bowl and ladled a spoonful of sauce on top.

"LUNCH IS READY!!!"

There was a collective pattering of feet as they rushed down to the meal Hikari had prepared. As they settled down, so did a sullen silence.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Soooo…If I'm going to be living with you guys for awhile, I should know something about you. All I really know is what your names are." Hikari inwardly grimaced at the blatant lie. Seriously, she knew about almost every aspect of their lives.

Kakashi cleared his throat and said, "She's right you know. If she's going to live with us, she might as well have an idea about what she's going to have to put up with!" Kakashi's smiling eye grinned at them all. Hikari sweatdropped. "So," continued Kakashi, "Let's give her our names, likes, dislikes and goals. I'll start."

"So, my name is Hatake Kakashi, hmmm…don't really like anything…don't dislike much either…as for my goal, never really thought about it much…"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, "That's exactly what you said last time!"

Kakashi shrugged. "Guess so."

Hikari sweatdropped. "Kaka-sensei, you like being an enigma, don't you…"

"Kaka-sensei?"

"I like nicknames."

"…"

"Umm, okay then," Sakura spoke up, "My name is Haruno Sakura, I guess I like my team somewhat, like books and um…yeah, I dislike it when I have to break up the fights in our team and waiting for our sensei." She glared at the males. _"Hehe…"_ they thought, _"Well it's true…" _"My goal is to become a medic ninja."

"Sakura-chan, your introduction changed!" Naruto exclaimed with surprise.

A vein popped on Sakura's forehead. "Of course it changed! I've changed too you know!! The Forest of Death would change anyone!"

"Er…Forest of Death?"

"Something from the Chunnin exams…"

"Okay then my turn!" Naruto practically inflated with excitement. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto and remember it 'cause one day I'm gonna be Hokage! … Well that was my goal. I like missions that are not D-ranked, and ramen. I don't like the three minutes you have to wait for ramen to cook and Sasuke."

An anger mark appeared in Sasuke's raven hair. "You idiot," he said while punching the blond on the head.

Sensing an imminent fight, Hikari hurriedly said, "Sasu-chan, your turn," just as Naruto was about to retaliate.

Reluctantly, Sasuke started his introduction. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like a lot of things, and you don't need to know what I like. My goal, however, is to take my revenge on a certain man…"

An awkward silence settled. There were quite a few of them today.

"Sasu-chan," Hikari began sternly, "Revenge is never something you should do. Hate breeds more hate (Ugh, I sound like Pein) and someone will want revenge on you for killing your brother and then someone will want to avenge you and on and on and on. It's a cycle of hatred. Really. I thought you were smarter than that."

Sasuke stood up and slammed his hands on the table.

"It's not like you would understand! You probably haven't lost anything!"

"Say I did understand. What would you say then?"

"You wouldn't understand. No one can understand me." Sasuke turned his back, the perfect image of an angsty teenager.

Emotion welled up in Hikari and she suddenly lost her cool. Instead, she gained a ferocious desire to make him understand. She grabbed her bowl of spaghetti and threw it at Sasuke's back as hard as she could. The bowl crashed into his head and long noodles spilled all over his hair.

"Yeah, well, unlike me, _you still have something!!_ When I lost my memories, I lost everything I ever loved and was plopped into a world of strangers!! At least you have a team that cares for you for who you are!! How could you possibly be so selfish!!!"

Hikari was shocked to find tears running down her cheek. The adrenaline in her blood suddenly left and she stammered out, "I-I'm re- um…I have to go…"

The emotionally distraught girl whipped around and ran down the hall, wiping tears from her face.

Sakura made as if to go after her, but Kakashi caught her arm.

"Sakura, I think she needs some time alone."

The pink haired girl hesitated for a moment before sitting back down.

There was a collective sigh around the table.

"To think she was carrying around that burden…" Kakashi leaned back in his chair and slapped his forehead.

'_She always acted so cheery…_' he thought, then his eye slid to Naruto. _'Then again, we have another little trooper, don't we."_

Sasuke stirred his spaghetti around and sighed. "_How was I supposed to know that she'd feel so bad about her situation…she never acts like it bothers her…_"

Sakura stared at her hands. "_I hope Kari-chan is alright…I wish I could check on her but…Kakashi-sensei is right…she does need some time alone._"

Naruto was thinking somewhere along the lines of, "_Sasuke, that bastard! Making Hikari-chan cry!! Next chance I get, I am so beating the crap out of him!!!!"_

Finally, Sasuke got up and headed towards Hikari's room.

Kakashi made a move to stop him but Sasuke said, "She's had enough alone time. We need to talk." As he talked, a faint blush brushed his cheeks.

At that moment, Kakashi knew what Sasuke was planning to do. The last Uchiha was tinged with guilt and was going to apologize. As Kakashi knew, it took a lot for such a prideful man to ask for forgiveness.

Kakashi nodded.

A flash of relief crossed Sasuke's face before he went towards Hikari's room.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari practically fled into her room. The door was slammed close and Hikari collapsed onto the bed.

She wiped away her tears and lay there, contemplating her situation. Suddenly, rage welled up in Hikari and she grabbed her pillow and started punching it for all she was worth.

"Stupid-"

Punch.

"Sasuke

Punch

"Making"

Punch

"Me"

Punch

"…Remember."

More tears sprang to her eyes.

She grabbed her pillow and hugged it furiously. A sob escaped her mouth, despite her attempts to hold it back.

"_How could I have just noticed it now? I can't get back to my own world…No one knows me…I can't be with my friends and family…_" she thought.

Hikari sniffed. She had read tons of stories and manga about not being with her friends and family, and how it was so painful…but she never really believed it.

"_I wanna go home…I didn't lose my memories but I kinda wish I did. Now I can remember everything I lost…_"

A tear trickled from her eyes, and then another. Soon, Hikari was sobbing again. She could acutely feel the pain of her loss in her chest. It ached.

Suddenly, a burst of rage exploded within her.

"God damn whichever deity got me here!!!!" Hikari threw the pillow as hard as she could at the door…which at that moment, opened and Sasuke ended up getting a face full of pillow. As the pillow dropped to the floor, Sasuke's exasperated face was unveiled.

"Phft…" Hikari buried her face in the blankets. Sasuke glared at her shaking form, annoyed with the muffled chuckles that arose from the bed.

Sasuke threw the pillow back at Hikari and hit her on the head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"You were laughing at me!!"

"I thank you for it since I badly needed to laugh at someone else's expense!"

Sasuke stopped for a second, and saw that Hikari's eyes were red and tear streaks were everywhere on her face. Oh how he hated doing this. He swallowed his pride.

"Look. We need to talk."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hey guys, this chapter is done but in this one, there is a deleted scene!!! The scene where Hikari's getting homesick was originally going to be from the POV of a pillow. I put a lot of thought into it, wrote it, and ended up being too confusing. I think it would suck to waste such a scene, so I'm sticking it in as a bonus!!! Hooray for bonuses!!! Well, here goes nothing.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Ahhh…..there was something going on outside…it was a little bit noisy… The pillow wondered what was going on. It was curious. Suddenly, the door to the master bedroom slammed open and in rushed a black and red haired girl. Tears were running down her cheeks. Abruptly, the girl dashed onto the bed and started pummeling the pillow.

Don't do that, the pillow thought reproachfully, you'll beat my stuffing out.

When the girl finally stopped punching the pillow, she moved her mouth and sounds came out, 'Why didn't I realize it until now? I don't know how to get back…Geez…'

The girl flopped onto her back and rested her head on the pillow. The pillow didn't comprehend anything the girl said of course, but it tried to be understanding.

More sound came out. 'Man, she said, 'I didn't lose my memories, but it's worse for me. I still remember every thing I lost.'

A trickle of water ran down the girl's face and landed on the pillow.

Don't put water on me, thought the pillow, I'll get moldy.

Suddenly, the door opened once again.

I can't see, thought the pillow, Her head is in the way.

The girl sat up to see who came in and the pillow could see the newcomer was a dark haired boy. There was red on his face and he seemed a bit…what was the word? Embarrassed.

{…well, ok then. Seeing as this is an extra, I didn't edit it.}

(It is soo totally an extra)

_**Zipideedooda**_

Yeah, that's the point where I went back and was like- I have no idea what I just wrote. Oh well better do it from the beginning. But oh my god this chapter took me several weeks to write. You know that comment about the spanish essay about Naruto and Sasuke, I turned that in around a month and a half ago.

My beta, whom you met a couple chapters back thinks that Hikari was being too emo. She's overreacting. All teenagers get angsty. She's a teenager that can't understand why in the world this weird thing happened to her. It's natural (I think) for her to be angsty.

Oh and by the way…I had my friend, who goes by Sachiko Cho (sometimes) draw Hikari!!! Woot!!! Sachiko is a really great artist and she was actually the one who designed Hikari's pants. I had nothing and I gave her creative liberty. She drew khaki pants so I wrote them in. Yeah… so here's the link… . . ..

......

The link refuses to show up. Try and look on my profile. I'll try putting it up there. Anyways, I'm planning on doing some art of Hikari of my own, so my fan art shall be in the next chapter!!! (I hope) If any of you awesome people want to go and draw Hikari, go ahead, just tell me and send me a link or something. YAY!!!! Well, that's it for now! See ya people!!! REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!!!!! (You know, all of these chapters on word take up…37 pages. Holy crap that's a lot of writing!! That's [goes and checks word count] 24832 words…not counting these…Okay, I am proud of myself)


	4. Chapter 4

Well, I'm so so sorry you guys, I just started my sophomore year, and I took on about seventeen thousand other extracurricular activities and I've had almost no inspiration seeing as I can't really spare a thought for this- I'm scatter-brained enough already. But since starting is always the hardest, I figured I just try to start. So I'm gonna try and work on this as much as possible over Thanksgiving break. So thank you for being patient with this fic…anyways….Disclaimer!!!

Disclaimer: Hmm, who should be my next victim? I'll get the guy who intruded last time! Drumroll please! Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls please welcome the amazing fish-man Kisame! Kisame gets dragged in by the scruff of his neck?

Kisame: What do you want now?

Hikari: I want you to do the disclaimer!

Kisame: NO! I'll shave you to shavings if you try to make me!

Hikari: You can't shave me if you don't have this! holds up Samaheda

Kisame: NO! My precious Samaheda!

Hikari: Do the disclaimer or you'll never see your sword thingy again!

Kisame: Fine. I'll do the disclaimer. Hikari does not own Naruto or any of the characters. She does own, however, the OC Hikari.

Hikari: Here's your sword back.

Kisame: HAHA! NOW I can shave you

Hikari:whips out tranquilizer gun, shoots Kisame and calls Animal control Hello? I would like to report a mutated shark in my living room…..Thanks.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"Look, we need to talk…" Sasuke rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Yes we do. You are an arrogant stuck up spoiled little teenaged idiot boy." Hikari glared over the pillow.

Sasuke glared back. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

Hikari considered this for a moment, then sighed, and said, "I guess you're right. Then I guess you must be trying to apologize."

Sasuke plopped down beside her. "Yeah, I guess…."

He twiddled his thumbs and stared at his feet and refused to look at the older girl.

Hikari poked him. "Well…get on with it!"

Sasuke slapped away at her hand. "Stop touching me!"

Hikari poked him again. This time, Sasuke poked her back. "How do you like that!"

She just glared and poked him twice.

Soon, it degenerated into an all-out poke fight.

It was only over when both of them were panting.

Sasuke, after he caught his breath, finally muttered an apology.

Hikari turned to face him. "Apology accepted. Anyways I should be a little sorry too. I might have gone a bit too far. But seriously, you, are just 12. You should really loosen up a bit."

Sasuke retorted, "Any ninja is considered an adult, even a twelve year old."

"So if a prepubescent boy with some severe mood swings has enough physical prowess, he can be considered an adult."

Sasuke glared at her. "You're being difficult."

"You have to realize that humans don't reach emotional maturity until their mid twenties. It doesn't matter how good at fighting you are or how strong; your physiology won't change until you reach adulthood- and I mean physically. Even if you are strong, your bones and muscles and nerves are still developing. It doesn't matter if the rest of society views you as an adult- the time when you become an adult is inscribed into you genes. I can't believe the adults here will even let you guys believe that- it's horrible for your psychological development…I mean, look at how you brother turned out!"

Sasuke started at the mention of his brother. "How do you know my brother?"

Hikari grabbed his ears and forced him to look at her. "You do get my point, right?"

Annoyed Sasuke replied with a "Yes, yes…"

Hikari finally released his aural appendages and said, "Good. Then we have an understanding. C'mon, let's go finish that dinner of ours."

She stood up and swept out of the room.

Sasuke sighed and followed her. How did she know about Itachi? He didn't get a chance to ask her either. He would have to tell Kakashi.

_**Zipideedooda**_

The next day, Kakashi decided it was time to demonstrate to his newest charge his teaching skills. After briefing her quickly on the basics of chakra he left her to her own devices. Hikari scratched her head. She knew the theory behind this but…how in the world was she supposed to put in practice? They didn't have any hints for this during the manga or anime.

She sighed. "I suppose I should give it a shot."

She closed her eyes and put her hands up into a seal and concentrated. She leveled off her breathing and focused hard on bringing her chakra out.

She opened her eyes to see a wisp of blue coming out of her hands.

"OMIGOD!!! I DID IT!!! YAY!!!" Hikari lost her concentration immediately and started jumping around like a rabbit that had too much caffeine.

Kakashi looked up from his book and said, "Very good for your first try. Keep going."

Sakura sighed. Sometimes, Hikari was more hyper than Naruto. She didn't think it was possible to get so excited over something like that.

"Yatta!" shouted Hikari while punching the air. "I'll get this by the end of the day!!"

_**Zipideedooda**_

"I can't believe how hard this is," grumbled Hikari at the end of the day.

"Come on, Hikari-chan! You can't really expect that you would master this after only one day? I mean, you'd have to be a super genius to do so!" exclaimed Naruto.

"I suppose you're right," Hikari groaned. She took a look in the kitchen and groaned again. "I haven't even started cooking yet!!! ARGH!!!"

Kakashi patted her on the shoulder. "That's okay. We'll go to Ichiraku's tonight."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"Naruto's treat!!"

"EHH?! But Kakashi-sensei!!!"

"That's the only way we can keep you from eating us out of the house.

"But still….."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Naruto was wolfing down ramen like it was his last meal. Hikari was staring in a mixture of amazement and disgust.

"_I did not realize that Naruto actually ate like that, I mean I didn't think it would be this bad…until today."_ She thought.

Sakura caught sight of her stare and said, "Yeah, it's slightly unsettling isn't it? You'll get used to it after awhile."

Hikari couldn't take her eyes away from the one-of-a-kind-ramen-eating-human-vacuum.

"Naruto, you know, you're going to choke if you don't slow down."

Naruto looked up from his bowl and said, "Ish adnt haffen ed, ie wund haffen ow."

"What?"

Naruto grabbed his glass of water and drained it.

Then he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, "I said, if it hasn't happened yet, it won't happen now."

Hikari scowled. "You're table manners are absolutely atrocious."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You're realizing that only now?"

Hikari ignored him. "Naruto. I'm teaching you how to eat properly."

Naruto stared at her. "Why? I'm eating aren't I?"

"You're eating in a way that's only acceptable by pigs."

Squabbles, threats and laughter made themselves known in the small ramen stand called Ichiraku.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"The next time you get me into a mess like this," panted Hikari, "You are dead meat."

"How was I supposed to know she'd react so violently?" Naruto gestured wildly behind him, at the furious kunoichi behind them.

Hikari ducked underneath an incoming kunai. "What did you did to her anyways?!" she all but shrieked. She almost ran into a pedestrian but he swerved out of the way just in time.

"I just threw a cat at her while she was in the shower!"

There was a momentary pause as Hikari processed this.

"You did WHAT!?!?"

She glanced back and spotted the angry red scratches on the angry kunoichi on her neck and arms.

"You can't just throw a cat into someone's shower! Did she do anything to you?!"

"She said I'd never become Hokage unless everyone else in the village died!"

"That's not reason enough to throw a cat into her shower! I can't believe that I stuck up for you after that!"

The angry woman behind them gave a wordless scream of frustration and anger and started speeding up.

"Naruto!" shouted Hikari, "We are discussing this as soon as we escape!"

A few minutes later, the angry kunoichi was bewildered by the hundreds of blonde haired, orange jump-suited pranksters swamping Konoha.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Very high on Hokage mountain, Naruto and Hikari sat panting.

Hikari took this opportunity to smack the blonde upside the head.

"Ow!" complained Naruto, but said nothing else.

"You know, that was way over the top. When someone is in the shower, they can't conceal weapons on themselves and they're completely off guard. Come to think of it, attacking someone in the shower is better for assassinations than pranks." said Hikari.

"But what's-her-face said I would never become Hokage!"

"Then prove her wrong!"

"What if I can't?!" A note of desperation crept into his voice.

Hikari sat for a moment, and just looked at him. "I can't see the future, so I can't say that you will become the Hokage, but it is definitely possible. You're very strong, Naruto. You have an incredible amount of willpower and strength. You have the potential to become a great ninja."

"But what if-'

Hikari smacked him again and stood. "No buts. No what if's. You can do it. So get off your sorry butt and let's go back home."

Naruto took her proffered hand and pulled himself up.

"Don't worry about it. And on the off chance you don't become Hokage, you will become one of the most respected ninja ever."

Naruto gave her a wide grin and bear hug. "Thanks Hikari-chan!"

He took off running. "If I get down first," he shouted over his shoulder, "I'm eating your dinner!!"

Hikari shook her head. "I guess he didn't remember I haven't cooked dinner yet."

_**Zipideedooda**_

"She mentioned your brother?" asked Kakashi incredulously.

"Yeah. But people know about what happened to my family. It's possible that she knows too." said Sasuke quietly.

"Hmm." Kakashi said nothing.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hi guys!!! Merry Christmas!!! I'm not even going to pretend that I can write a chapter in one sitting. This one took me a while. I wrote half of this on a new laptop I got for my birthday!!!! Not only that, but I am typing this while on a 3 hour trip to a nearby ski resort. So I think this chapter was definitely not some of my best work. It's rather scattered and uninteresting, if you ask me. But I finally got that stupid make up scene done. It was absolutely horrible to do. I just want to get over this character development and get to the exciting parts, but that would probably get to be a bad story….I can't even tell if I'm doing character development correctly. I think I might have to take a few workshops on this stuff. Good stories really are hard to write. (Obviously!) So yeah, you guys enjoy your winter break and hopefully, (all fingers crossed) I'll get my next chapter up soon.

As I'm sure my readers aren't completely retarded, I'm sure they have realized that IT ISN'T THANKSGIVING OR WINTER BREAK!! In fact, we're in the middle of spring! So yeah, there are two reasons for that...I did finish this chapter during winter break but...eheh, ...I forgot to upload it... You can shoot me now...and then when I realized that I hadn't uploaded it yet, I reread it and decided to add more into this chapter. Thus, the cat in the shower. I also wanted there to be more relationship development between Hikari and team 7 and that she would position herself as the older sister. I hope that's what it came off as. And also, I hope Naruto didn't come off as too OOC because in reality, he really isn't smart enough to consider that he might not become Hokage. I just had a period where I figured that Naruto couldn't be as stupid as some fanfictions were making him. I was wrong. Talk about personal wish fulfillment. For those of you who remember the originial version, this is a different version of the psychologist stuff. So yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter yaddayaddayadda, you know the drill.


	5. Chapter 5

Heya people from !! I have come with another installment of Sucked In V2!!! So hopefully, this chapter doesn't suck as much as the one before. Well, today's chapter is dedicated to my good friend xXNaru FantasyXx, because it's her birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear xXNaru FantasyXx!!! Happy Birthday to you!!!

I hope she enjoys this chapter!

Disclaimer: OKAY! Here goes nothing! pulls Sasuke in

Sasuke: What do you want now?

Hikari: I want you to do the disclaimer!

Sasuke: NOOOOOO!!!! I'll never do it! curse seal starts to spread RAWR!

Hikari: shoots Sasuke with tranquilizer gun Never mind, I'll do it myself.

I, by no means own Naruto. I mean, if I did, I wouldn't be writing this now, would I?

Itachi:fumes YOU SAID I HAD LINES LAST CHAPTER!!!YOU LIED!!!!

Sasuke: Aniki?!?!?

Hikari: You're brother has sank so low, Sasuke.

Sasuke: speechless

Itachi:

Hikari: I can't promise for this chapter, but definitely the next.

Itachi: YAAAHHH!!!

Sasuke: still speechless

(obviously an old disclaimer: Itachi already had lines)

_**Zipideedooda**_

Several weeks later, Team 7 plus 1 had settled into a routine. Missions in the morning while Hikari cooked and one of the genin stayed with her. Then lunch before training which Hikari usually joined them. If Hikari went out with them, she either fixed up something in the morning for dinner or they went out to eat. Otherwise, she would stay home (again with someone watching her) and do some chores or just relax. It was an arrangement that worked very well.

Hikari did learn very quickly, the arts of the ninja. By the time the first week was over, she managed to create a single bunshin. By the second, she performed a passable henge of Naruto. After a month, Kakashi deemed her ready for the tree climbing exercise. Like Sakura, she had very good chakra control but not a lot of chakra.

During a training session, Kakashi decided that Hikari could spar with Sakura instead of doing a triple tag team exercise that they usually did.

"Really? I get to spar?" Hikari's eyes shined.

Sakura slid into a stance. "Get ready though, I'm all set."

In response, Hikari copied Sakura's stance. "Ready!"

Sakura charged and swung a punch. Hikari ducked and tried to sweep Sakura's legs but Sakura jumped over the kick and aimed a kick at Hikari's head. Hikari lifted her arms up in a block but Hikari judged the kick wrong and ended up with a bloody nose.

Panting slightly, Sakura asked, "Are you ok?"

Hikari nodded and pinched her nose. "I think I'll wait for it to stop bleeding before I spar again though."

Sakura nodded in agreement. Then she turned around and ran towards the other two boys, who were having the time of their lives trying to bash each other's skulls in.

"Hey Sasuke-kun! Naruto! I'm going to train with you guys for a bit. Hikari-chan has a nose bleed!!"

Meanwhile, Hikari went to sit down by her gray-haired teacher.

"A nosebleed, huh?" Kakashi said.

Hikari rolled her eyes. "No. I'm pinching my nose and holding tissues to it for no reason at all. Someone with your expertise could see that."

Kakashi chuckled. "You did well for your first spar anyways. Sakura has been a ninja a lot longer than you have been."

"Yeah, I guess," Hikari sighed, "Nosebleeds are very annoying."

Abruptly, Kakashi asked, "Has any of your memory come back yet?"

"Umm, not really," Hikari said a little too quickly. "I think it's because what I do here isn't anything like I might have done before."

"_Well,"_ thought Hikari,_ "That's not completely a lie."_

"Ah," Kakashi said before leaning back to his rest on the tree, "That could be it."

Hikari almost breathed a sigh of relief, "_That was close. I hope that I kept him from being too suspicious". _

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye. _"She answered too quickly and she stiffened. Not to mention she knew about Itachi… She's hiding something and I can only assume the worst."_

_**Zipideedooda**_

"This is a very interesting report you brought me, Kakashi." said Tsunade. She frowned and set her head on her interlocked fingers. "It's rather disturbing as well. You do realize that you have no proof but your instinct?'

Kakashi nodded.

"But you're sure."

He nodded again.

Tsunade thought for a minute and came to a resolution. "Have your team watch her carefully. Don't report this to the council. They'll jump to conclusions and have her arrested, innocent or not. If they arrest and execute an innocent, the repercussions could be serious. I trust your instinct, however; it's generally correct."

"I understand. Even if she is a spy, we can still feed her false information."

_**Zipideedooda**_

"WHAT!?!"

Kakashi sighed. He knew what their reaction would be. Naruto and Sakura stood in front of him and he had just broken the news of his suspicions.

"But Hikari-chan can't be a spy! She's too nice and she's not even a ninja!" cried Naruto.

"She could be pretending on both accounts. She might have even volunteered to cook for us so that she can poison our food when need be," explained Kakashi.

"But we're just genin! What would she have to gain from us?" asked Sakura.

"She could try and use some technique to brainwash you, and use you to attack the Hokage. After all, no one really notices a genin. She could also try using a truth serum to find out village secrets. She might even be after Sasuke's Sharingan."

"But she can't be…" said Sakura. She had gotten close to Hikari lately. After all, it had been awhile since she had been in another girl's company for so long.

"There is no guarantee," said Kakashi, "We need to find proof, first. It would look bad on Konoha if we accused an innocent of being a spy."

"Yosh! All we have to do is find proof that she isn't a spy."

"Or find proof that she is a spy. Sakura, you tell Sasuke about what we discussed. Be careful not to let her know our suspicions. And make sure your food isn't poisoned."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari knew there was something wrong with the three genin. She had stayed with them long enough to learn their mannerisms and they were acting far too antsy around her. Kakashi acted the same as always but one could never tell with him. Why were they so nervous around her? They were practically jumping out of their skins. Just last night when they were having dinner….

_Hikari had made ramen. It was her first shot and she didn't think it came out too badly. But apparently, Naruto didn't think so. He was poking around his noodles and looked as though something was wrong with it. _

"_If he didn't like it, he could have just said so," she thought. Sakura and Sasuke were eating, but by the looks on their faces, they didn't like it very much either._

"_Naruto, is there something wrong?" Hikari asked._

_All three of them jumped three feet in the air. _

"_N-no! Of course not!!" laughed Sakura nervously, "What makes you think that?"_

_Naruto tried to pull a grin. "Yeah! It's your first time making ramen right? I would have never known, it's really good!"_

_Hikari sighed. Subtlety was never Naruto's strong suit. Something weird was going on. She dug into her own bowl but missed Kakashi's facepalm._

As she pondered her problem, she flipped the grilled cheese sandwich in the pan. Team 7 minus Naruto had taken off on a mission somewhere. Naruto himself was in the bathroom. Maybe she could just ask him about it. She didn't know if Naruto could lie very well; he had always gotten caught with his pranks, but he also usually admitted that he did them, for the attention. Judging from last night's display, he couldn't lie unless his life depended on it. Well, she would find out.

Just then the front door opened. Well, she couldn't ask Naruto in front of the others. They could probably cover him. That plan was shot until she had another chance alone with him.

Without looking up from her pan she said, "Welcome back guys, I didn't expect you home so soon so you'll have to wait a little for lunch."

A deep silky voice she didn't recognize answered, "I didn't come here for lunch."

Hikari whipped around and in the door way, stood a man in a black cloak decorated with red clouds. He had black hair... and red eyes.

"Argh!" Hikari lifted one hand to her head as an arc of searing pain raced through her head. The memory of her first meeting with Itachi slammed back into her brain. Her eyes widened

Itachi chuckled and said, "I see you finally remembered our encounter in the forest. Now would you tell me where Naruto-kun is?"

Hikari ignored his question. Instead, she slowly turned back to the stove… where she suddenly grabbed her frying pan and threw the cooking sandwich at him.

Like she expected, he vanished. There was only one place he would go from there. She swept her pan backwards. She caught sight of black and red behind her, but before her makeshift weapon reached its target, a hand shot out and caught her wrist. Then it squeezed with crushing force, causing her to gasp in pain and drop her frying pan which clattered onto the floor.

"Hikari-chan, are you okay?" called Naruto's voice from the bathroom.

"Yeah I'm fine! Just don't come out!" Hikari replied hastily.

In a bid for freedom, Hikari attempted to elbow Itachi in the stomach with her free hand. Somehow, she couldn't see, he caught her other wrist as well.

She felt him bend over and whisper in her ear, "Worried about him, are we? I would worry more about yourself."

Hikari replied, "You don't want me. You want Naruto. If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it as soon as you walked in through the door." She started to struggle, attempting to escape his iron grasp. Geez! He handled her struggles like she would a two-year old who didn't want to go to bed. He chuckled again. She really didn't see what was so funny.

The sound of a flushing toilet made her momentarily freeze. Then she doubled her efforts for freedom. If Naruto saw her in Itachi's grasp, he would totally freak out and get caught. She didn't want to think about the consequences of that. Things were not following the storyline anymore! She just hoped that she could predict some of the things that were to come.

The sound of the running sink reached Hikari's ears. Itachi gripped her wrists harder, since she began struggling desperately. Soon, Naruto stepped out of the bathroom. He froze in surprise. Then he grabbed one of his kunai and pointed it at her captor. His eyes were blazing with fury.

"You bastard!" he shouted, "Who are you? What are you doing with Hikari-chan?!"

Itachi said coldly, "You only need to come with me, and she doesn't have to die." He tightened his hold on Hikari's wrists, making her wince a little. She shivered at his tone.

Naruto gritted his teeth.

Hikari shook her head. "Don't you dare come this way, Naruto."

Naruto ignored her and started walking forward.

The elder Uchiha practically threw Hikari at Naruto. After steadying her, Naruto continued his determined walk forwards.

Time seemed to stop. She couldn't find any words to persuade him not to go.

Suddenly, a thought came to her.

"Hey, Naruto, where's your radio?"

"It's in the bathroom. Why?"

Hikari hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Never mind! Just hold him off!"

She sped towards the bathroom as she heard the cry of, "_Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_" and multiple popping noises. She spied the little black headset and dove for it.

"Kaka-sensei?! Are you there?"

There was a little crackling noise before:

"Hikari-san? What's wrong?"

"This dude in a black cloak with red clouds on it showed up. I think he was the person who knocked me out in the forest! Naruto is holding him off for now, but he's really strong! Come qui-"

A kunai pinned the headset to the wall. Hikari tried to whirl around to face her attacker, but Itachi had already struck the pressure point at the back of her neck.

She blacked out.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Itachi looked down on the girl's fallen figure. He had wanted to stop her before she could send out her message but Naruto had stalled him just long enough. Itachi had put Hikari on first priority, at least for a little while too, so the blond wasn't out of action yet. There were a few choices that could be made from here.

He could go out and subdue Naruto, but it would probably end up taking too much time and he would end up having the ANBU on his tail. Kisame wasn't with him so he would have a tough time of escaping with an unconscious Naruto.

He could try to use Hikari as bait for Naruto right now, but if Naruto could hold off long enough, he would end up in the same situation. The odds weren't very good, but it was better than the first option.

He also could escape now, before the ANBU and Kakashi came, but with Hikari. He would make a clean getaway. And Naruto would come to him. His choice was obvious. He picked up Hikari and slung her over his shoulder. When he made his way outside, Naruto became more incensed.

"You bastard!!" he shouted, "Where are you taking Hikari-chan!!"

Puffs of smoke appeared as a fresh set of clones readied themselves for a fight. They got to enjoy their existence for about two seconds before several kunais lodged themselves inside their stomachs.

Itachi disappeared as soon as he set foot outside the door.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Whew! Ten pages! I think this might be my longest chapter. Right after the fourth chapter came out too!! This is probably the shortest interval between updates yet. I think this chapter came out pretty well. I finally got to the part where the actual plot is starting to develop as well!!! It's real exciting. I've wanted to get here since forever, but didn't want to rush the plot. Well, that's all I really wanted to say, so, review please and tell me if you thought this chapter sucked or not. Ja ne!


	6. Chapter 6

So……this would be the sixth chapter of Sucked In V2. I'm so proud of myself. I'm churning out chapters of this fanfiction. In close succession too. But any ways… On to the disclaimer!

Disclaimer:

_**Zipideedooda**_

Kakashi stood on a limb, watching the feline as it stalked through the forest.

"Sakura, Sasuke, are you in position?"

Two affirmatives came over the little radios around his neck.

"All right, on my signal…Go!"

There was a scuffle, the yowl of a cat, and a lot of swearing.

"Shit! It got away again, Kakashi-sensei."

Suddenly, a crackle came over the intercom.

"Kaka-sensei?! Are you there?"

Kakashi nearly fell out of the tree.

"Hikari-san? What's wrong?"

"This dude in a black cloak with red clouds on it showed up. I think he was the person who knocked me out in the forest! Naruto is holding him off for now, but he's really strong! Come qui-"

Static.

"Hikari-san!! Hikari-san!! Are you there?" Kakashi shouted into the radio.

There was no answer.

The grey haired ninja shot off towards the Uchiha compound.

"Sasuke, Sakura, there has been a change in the mission. Go alert the Hokage about the presence of Akatsuki members in the village. I'm going to go hold them off."

As he sped through the woods, he thought, _'Naruto, Hikari-san, please be okay.'_

Thirty two seconds later, he landed on the doorway of the Uchiha compound.

It took two seconds to verify Naruto's well being.

Another two seconds elapsed before Kakashi realized what Naruto was babbling about.

It took twenty seconds more before Kakashi would unfreeze.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari slowly awakened, but didn't open her eyes. She wasn't that tired but she had this permeating headache that started from the back of her neck. Maybe she wouldn't have to make breakfast today. She bet Sakura would cook this time. Suddenly, she heard voices.

"How come you only got her? It was only her and the Kyuubi brat inside that house. It should have been easy."

"There were complications."

Hikari shifted a little, but her eyes remained closed. Those voices sounded familiar, but they didn't belong to anyone from Team Seven.

There was a short pause before, "We're going to use her as bait."

"What!?!? But that means…oh no, Pein isn't going to be very happy about this."

The gears in her groggy mind were starting to turn faster.

"I don't care what he thinks. Method of capture is up to us."

Realization raced through Hikari's mind as the events of the morning came back to her. This was very bad. SHE HAD BEEN KIDNAPPED BY A COUPLE OF S-RANKED CRIMINALS!!

There was an aggravated sigh before, "Whatever, let's just tie her up before she wakes up and get a move on."

Hikari stiffened. There was no way she was getting tied up. She was escaping! Getting her freedom of movement stripped would definitely hinder her plans.

She felt a presence come closer and closer before… she snapped her eyes open and head butted a very surprised Kisame in the head. He stumbled backwards, eyes wide in shock. Hikari took this moment to sprint off in the distance.

She channeled her chakra to her legs, trying to gain as much speed as possible. Kisame and Itachi were S-ranked missing-nins! They would probably catch her but she might get within shouting distance of Konoha.

Several minutes passed before she was forced to slack off a bit. She kept on running, however. She had no idea how far away they had taken her, but if she kept running, she would surely get there!

After awhile, Hikari couldn't run anymore. She was gasping for air and her head hurt from where she had hit Kisame. She also was totally out of chakra. She hoped that the two missing-nins had lost her trail and would have to search for her. That would buy her some time. Right now, she had settled herself to a fast walk. Where in the world was Konoha?

Suddenly, a hand reached out and tapped her on the shoulder. Hikari panicked, tripped over her own feet only to look up at the dastardly duo.

"Konoha is that way," said Itachi impassively, pointing in the direction from which she ran.

Hikari facepalmed.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"_There is no way this is happening._"

The thought ran through Naruto's mind over and over again. It was all his fault that Hikari got taken! Itachi had only wanted him and Hikari had gotten caught up in this mess. Somehow, Hikari had wormed her way onto the list of his precious people.

Hikari had become a part of his life. There was no getting around it. Her presence affected them all. Even the bastard seemed to loosen up. With her gone, it felt like there was a huge gaping hole in Team Seven.

He had to go and get her back. He was going to make things right. He needed to make things right.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Sakura was absolutely shocked. For the past couple of months, Hikari had become a part of their lives with her blunt disposition, sunny smiles and her cooking. She had fully expected to walk back into the house with the aroma of whatever Hikari had been cooking wafting into her nose. To have her suddenly disappear like that was jarring. She hadn't realized that Hikari had become so important to her. After months of living together, they had become close. After all, Hikari was the only other girl she got to talk to on a regular basis. She had talked to Hikari more than any other girl for the time she knew her.

Even though Hikari might have been a spy, she had tried to be a positive influence of the three. It was difficult to imagine Hikari as a spy. It was simply inconceivable. The image of the brightly smiling brown-eyed girl did not match the image of the dark and sinister shadow that was usually associated with the word spy.

Sakura put her head in her hands. She wished she could talk to her missing friend.

_**Zipideedooda**_

To say Sasuke was angry would be an understatement. He was a boiling volcano of fury and hatred. Hikari had grown on him, after their first fight. They had bickered but it was bickering of the friendly sort. She really did try to help him too, even though he mostly ignored it, and said yes when she wanted him to.

Then there was that entire fiasco with thinking Hikari might be a spy. Secretly, he hadn't let it show, it had hurt him, the possibility that Hikari might be selling them out, turning her back on them. They still hadn't cleared that situation up. Now that she was gone, they would have to get her back to clear her name.

To add to that injury, it was his brother that took her away. After hearing Naruto's description of the kidnapper, Sasuke had recognized it right away. He had left the room without a word, but broke a few vases in the safety of his home. He knew he would feel the same way if someone took anyone of his team away.

Sasuke paused at that thought. He wouldn't have thought that way before he met Hikari. Maybe she had been a bigger influence on him than he thought.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Kakashi sighed.

He never noticed how Hikari had ingrained herself in their lives. Slowly, she had wormed her way into their hearts. Their reactions to her kidnapping were proof of their attachment. All three of his genin seemed to be in some state of shock.

He found himself saddened by the incident, despite his previous allegation that she might have been a spy. But since she had gotten kidnapped, there had to be a bureaucratic pause before any search could be commenced. When he had heard, he kept his cool façade, but on the inside he was shouting, "_She's my student! We need to go NOW!"_

Hikari had been his student and his caretaker. He missed her cooking. He hadn't had a home cooked meal since his father died until Hikari came into his life. He usually just ate whatever was easy and he could make within five minutes. He saw Hikari working hard at anything she tried and he felt proud.

His instincts as a ninja however, told him that she was suspicious. The way she managed to fit herself into Team Seven was almost skillful. Not to mention, she had known about Itachi. Sasuke did mention that she knew what happened to his clan, even though no one had said anything about it. She also didn't act surprised when she found out that the compound was empty, like she had known before hand. If that didn't point to forehand knowledge, nothing did.

And the kidnapping could have been a way to retrieve Hikari and that she was spying for the Akatsuki. She might have gotten all the information she needed from them and she just needed a way to get away from the ninja team that was guarding her 24/7.

But…this was Hikari. The conflicted jonin groaned.

_**Zipideedooda**_

There was a short struggle. It didn't take much to subdue Hikari, especially since she had already exhausted herself by her fruitless run.

As soon as the ninja wire secured her wrists behind her, she was thrown roughly over Itachi's shoulder.

"Ow! You have a bony shoulder, you red-eyed freakazoid," she informed Itachi bluntly.

Itachi twitched. Kisame stifled a snigger.

"So…where are you guys taking me? It's the least you could do, telling, since I pretty much have no choice."

"No. The least we could do is feed you. Shut up."

Hikari had no answer for that. She settled down for a long wait. What could she do? There was a chance that it wouldn't be Naruto coming for her, a chance that he would and a chance that no one would at all. She winced at the last one. Her life would be worthless then, and she would most definitely die.

She hoped Naruto wouldn't come and Tsunade would send a couple of hunter nin instead.

But meanwhile, she was very tired from her run, and the rhythm of Itachi's was very soothing.

Two minutes later, a snore escaped her.

Kisame stared at her. It was pretty bizarre. This red and black haired girl was tied up and was currently being hauled around like a piece of baggage by an S-ranked missing-nin, and she was relaxed enough to sleep.

He was pretty sure Itachi twitched again. This girl certainly could unsettle people.

A couple hours later, Hikari woke up. It was nighttime and she heard the crackling of fire.

She was leaning against a tree in a clearing. There was a small fire in the center with Itachi and Kisame conversing in hushed tones.

Then, she realized that her hands were free. She also realized she had no idea where she was and if she ran off she would probably get mauled by some wild animal.

She bet the other two knew it too. They would also probably catch her the second she tried to run as well.

She groaned as she stood up. Getting tied up and hauled around really made a person stiff.

Then she noticed Itachi and Kisame watching her.

"What?" she snapped, "You know I can't run and you can't expect me to stay in one place all day. I'm going for a walk. I'll stay within sight of the fire. Besides, I'm sure you can keep tabs on me without using actual sight."

Itachi nodded and turned back to the fire.

Hikari set off to explore. The botany was familiar. She recognized some of the foliage... she had an idea.

An evil grin spread across her face. This was going to be absolutely awesome.

_**Zipideedooda**_

True to her word, Hikari never strayed far. In fact, come morning, under the watchful eye of one blue shark-man, she started making breakfast.

Kisame had speared a rabbit, fully prepared to eat it raw (he couldn't cook if his life depended on it; which it often did) before Hikari stole it from him and said she would cook it because she would be damned if she let anyone eat anything raw, kidnapper or not.

When Itachi woke up, an expression of surprise flitted across his face. Probably because it actually smelled good. Kisame never cooked, always either ate things raw, ate out, or ate ration bars or chakra pills.

"Have some rabbit," Hikari said cheerfully. "Fishy-chan caught it."

Kisame choked on the rabbit mid bite. "Fishy-chan?!?!"

Hikari pouted. "You guys won't tell me your names, and I have to call you something."

"Fishy-chan?!?!?!?!"

"Would you prefer Sushi Head?"

"…I'll take Fishy-chan."

Itachi sweatdropped.

_**Zipideedooda**_

I think this is a good place to stop. I have been writing like a maniac. I churned out two 10 page chapters, both topping 2000 words within a week. I'm crying tears of joy!! So anyways… that's it for now. I've used up a lot inspiration so I think I'll take a break so that it starts flowing again. I don't want to force out a chapter. They probably turn out pretty bad. (see chapter 4) So yeah, I love you guys!! Keep reading!!! Drink your milk!! Review!!! BYE!!


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys, I decided that I would start my seventh chapter instead of studying for my AP exams! YAY! No seriously, I'm taking two this year and it's a nightmare. Especially AP US History, or APUSH as we like to call it. There so much stuff to memorize! I hear three is the most you should ever do but one of my friends is taking SIX. Yeah, you heard me right six AP exams. She just might be insane, I think. But enough about AP's and on with the story!

Sorry to keep you guys waiting. I meant to upload this chapter last week but things came up... 

Disclaimer: Hikari: softly laughing evilly. Our "guest" should be arriving shortly.

"Guest": NOOOOOOOOOO! You can't make me!

Hikari(the OC): Got 'em! dumps giant sack on the ground

Sack: OW! That hurt!

Hikari: Oh well.

The sack is opened to reveal Deidara tied from head to toe. His hands were even duct taped.

Hikari: Disclaimer. Now.

Deidara: No.

Hikari(The OC): Leans and whispers something in his ear

Deidara: Ack! NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT! I'll do your stupid disclaimer!

Hikari(OC): That's better.

Deidara: Hikari does not own Naruto. Now let me go!

Hikari: Fine. unties Deidara

Deidara: runs out as fast as he can.

Hikari: What did you tell him?

Hikari(oc): I told him if he didn't, we would force-feed him a mixture of brussel sprouts, spinach and broccoli covered in ketchup, mustard, relish, salad dressing, mayonaise, garlic and cheese through all three mouths.

Hikari: Nice.

_**Zipideedooda**_

"No. And that's final."

"But Baa-chan! She needs us! She's probably all scared and alone and and and..." Naruto thought for a moment before inspiration lit up his mind "Desperately wants us to take her back!"

Inwardly, Naruto admitted that that wasn't very likely at all. She was more likely to walk out by herself and say, "What took you so long?" than whatever scenario he had dreamed up. But he would say anything to convince Tsunade baa-chan.

"No. I will be sending hunter nins. You simply don't have the expertise for such an operation. Especially since she might be a spy. Not to mention, you're emotionally involved. That makes things worse."

Naruto slammed his hands on the Hokage's desk. "That involvement is the kind of thing that will make us try even harder at rescuing her!"

Sakura stepped forward.

"Tsunade-sama," she said, trying to keep her face free from emotion, "We would like to bring Hikari back alive, especially since we think she's a spy. That way, we can figure out if she really is a spy or not. If she is a spy, then we can discover what she found out and who she works for. Since hunter-nin have no attachment to her, it is more likely that they will t-terminate her. We are capable for this retrieval especially since, especially since we will have Kakashi-sensei with us..." She faltered.

Tsunade, however, smiled. This pink-haired girl showed potential. And spunk. To be able to step up and come up with this list of reasons to let them go was rather impressive. She had only faltered twice. However, they weren't capable enough. As they were now, they'd get slaughtered and she would lose three promising young shinobi, and most likely their capable leader.

"I can just make sure that the Hunter-nin don't kill her. I'm sorry kids, you guys just aren't strong enough."

"We'll get stronger then." This time Sasuke put in his two cents. "We still don't know where they took her. It will take some time to find. We'll leave the searching to you. In the mean time. we'll train and get stronger."

Tsunade thought for a moment.

"On one condition. You will have to show me that you are strong enough to go. Do we have a deal?"

The three genin nodded, then ran outside, obviously going to train.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. Kids grew up so fast. She sighed. She needed a drink.

_**Zipideedooda**_

The next day found Hikari slung over Itachi's shoulder. Again. There was no way she could keep up with them and their monstrous chakra reserves so she was again, reduced to luggage.

"Hey, red-eyed freakazoid. Is there anyway to switch this up? You know, maybe carry me underneath your arm or maybe Fishy-chan can carry me. 'Cause this is kinda boring."

"No."

"Meanie."

Itachi twitched.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Kakashi carefully ruffled through one of Hikari's bags. There was no telling what could be in there. It could be notes taken on Konoha, on their weak points and their strengths. There might be vials of poisons to use at anytime.

Instead, he found the book Sakura had lent Hikari, a few pairs of socks and a couple recipes that Hikari had jotted down that she had discovered. He put those aside. He would examine them for code, but he slipped the recipe for Hikari's tomato soup in his pocket.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Sasuke was panting. Kakashi had given him over to Gai, the crazy taijutsu jounin. Apparently, he needed to improve his stamina and strength. And, the jonin had a trick for combating the Sharingan, and Sasuke intended to find out what it was. But in the mean time...

"Come on, Sasuke-san!" called Tenten, "Just four more laps to go!"

"YOSH!" shouted Lee, "The fires of youth truly burn within you!"

Sasuke would have snorted if he had the breath. How in the world did they run ten laps around Konoha with thirty pound weights on each foot?

_**Zipideedooda**_

Naruto had sought out Jiraiya again, for training. He got a few exercises for charkra control: if he mastered them, he would get taught a couple more ninjutsu, or so the Pervy Sage promised. The blond haired ninja remembered the kidnapping. He closed his eyes and clenched his fist. He couldn't do anything to protect her. He had to get stronger. If he couldn't protect Hikari, how could he protect the village, and if he couldn't protect the village, how could he ever become Hokage?

_**Zipideedooda**_

Sakura after she had found out that Kakashi knew no medical jutsu at all, went straight to Tsunade and begged for an apprenticeship. Tsunade had started her on learning basic human anatomy and the secret behind her power punches. Sakura panted, and pulverized a tree trunk.

"That's enough," Tsunade said. "You've completely exhausted your chakra reserves."

"But Tsunade-sama-"

"Go home, take a shower, then study those textbooks I gave you. I'm quizzing you tomorrow on chapter 15."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!"

_**Zipideedooda**_

"What did you do to us?" hissed Itachi venemously.

"Maybe if you let me go, I can see what the problem is." Hikari was pleased to hear that her voice was mainly quaver-free. She knew exactly what the problem was. An itchy red rash should be creeping up the Akatsuki duo's arms. They came from the poison ivy leaves she had rubbed on the insides of their cloaks.

Of course, neither of them were terribly pleased to feel the beginnings of the itch and of course they (rightfully) blamed it on her. So currently she was pinned to the tree. She could see every detail of the bark that was inches away from her nose. It had hurt, dammit, when he had slammed her against the rough trunk.

Her arms were aching for freedom. She could feel Itachi's gaze boring through the back of her skull and hoped he would let her down.

After what felt like ages, Itachi dropped her. After she had picked herself up, she grabbed Itachi's hand and almost immediately let go. It was covered with splotches of ugly red bumps, all the way up to his shoulder.

"Woah, that's the worst case of poison ivy I have ever seen."

"Fix it."

"Uh, I have no idea how." Hikari backed away slowly from the oldest Uchiha, only for her back to meet the broad expanse of a tree trunk.

"Oh, but you must have some idea." Itachi's voice suddenly got all velvety smooth, as he approached, his face inches away from hers, red eyes glowing with fury.

"Um, hold on a sec," Hikari scratched her head, " Er... when you shower, wash with cold water, no wait, that's prevention. Um, well it won't spread, I think. All you have to do is endure the itching until it goes away. The more you scratch, the more it itches. Oh, drink more water to flush it out...I think, oh! And ice helps with the itching. Well, none of that stuff would hurt to try..."

Hikari looked nervously at the fuming Uchiha and decided, she probably shouldn't try anything like this anymore. It was funny but...Itachi was just way too scary.

It took two more days of traveling to get to their destination. On the last day, they blindfolded Hikari. Needless to say, she wasn't very happy about it. They had to tie her hands behind her to keep her from ripping it off.

"You guys really don't have to blindfold me you know. My sense of direction is horrible. Just remember what happened when I first woke up."

Kisame sniggered.

Hikari rolled her unseen eyes. "Hardeeharhar, yes it was incredibly hilarious, but I think my point is proven. Can you guys please take this thing off?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"NO. Now shut up before I knock you out."

"..."

"Please?"

Suddenly, with no warning, Hikari was plummeting to the ground.

Itachi had dropped her! And she was pretty far up as well. She felt indignation well up inside her, but it was quickly replaced by fear. She ruthlessly quashed down. Fear wouldn't help her survive. She felt the wind whistling in her ears. It really didn't help that she couldn't see. She couldn't orient herself at all. There was no way to tell if she was upside down or if she was just tumbling. She wanted to scream, but she clamped her lips shut. What good would screaming do anyways? She was going to die, simply because she pissed off Itachi once too many. She should have figured out where to toe the line. She was just sad that she wouldn't be able to go back home. Or see team seven again. If only things could be d- She refused to think of such things. Things couldn't be different. She would end up splattered on the forest floor. And there was nothing she could to do abo-

Suddenly, the world jerked to a halt. She wasn't falling anymore. Faintly, she realized that Itachi had caught her.

"Have we learned our lesson?" he asked cooly.

"Huh, she didn't scream." That would be Kisame.

As soon as the realization that she was going sunk in, all the fear that she had been suppressing on the way down came crashing over her. She trembled in Itachi's arms, and she was glad that the blindfold absorbed the few tears that had squeezed out of her eyes.

By the time they reached the base, Hikari had fallen asleep.

_**Zipideedooda**_

When Hikari woke up, she did not recognize her surroundings. She was in a stone room, lit by four torches on each corner. There was a small toilet in one corner along with a sink of matching size as well as curtain for privacy. A pile of blankets and pillows had been carelessly tossed in one corner. There was only one exit, a heavy set, wooden door. Her hands were free, but there was a metal collar around her neck, chaining her to the short, stout metal stump in the middle of the room.

The chain was long enough to give her access to the entire room, but it was humiliating, degrading, to be chained up like a dog. That had to be the purpose of the chain. There could be no other reason. It didn't restrain her from anything except going out the door and that was probably locked and bolted. It was psychological warfare. They were trying to humiliate her, downgrade her worth in her own eyes.

Well, if she realized it, it meant it wouldn't work right?

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari was sitting on top of the metal pole, picking at her toe, and talking into an invisible phone when Itachi walked in. She laughed inwardly. She'd swear she had just saw him twitch.

"Yeah, just shove that pickle up his nose. Hey, I'll have to call you back. Looks like I have company. What's up, Freakazoid?"

Itachi ignored her.

"You are going to answer all of my questions truthfully. Or this will end badly for you."

"Yeah, yeah whatever."

"Where did you come from?

"I don't remember."

"Why were you in Konoha?"

"To buy some of their ramen. I heard it was really good!"

"Were you familiar with Team Seven before the last few months?"

"How could I be familiar with them? I hadn't set foot in Konoha before."

"Did they know anything about you before you became their client?"

"Of course not."

Itachi held her gaze for a moment, then turned to leave.

"The next time I question you, I expect the truth."

Itachi left the room, leaving Hikari to her own devices.

She chewed on her lip, thinking, _"Well, he knew that I was lying on practically all accounts but I hope he didn't glean too much from this... I should probably keep him from learning anything about me. Other than that, what can I do here?"_

Hikari pondered this question for a moment.

"_That's right! I can escape! Now why didn't I think of that earlier? But the question is how?" _

The answer, it as it turned out came with her next meal.

The orange-masked flibbertigibbet, Tobi, walked in with one, very burnt piece of toast.

"Hi! You must be Hikari-san! I'm Tobi and Tobi is a good boy! Tobi has brought you dinner!"

Tobi handed her the toast.

"Um, Tobi-san? I don't think I can eat this... it's way too burnt. Can you just go get me some of whatever the others are eating?"

"But Hikari-san, this IS what everyone else is eating."

Hikai looked down at her inedible toast and then back up at Tobi. "You're not kidding."

"Tobi is a good boy! He would never kid!"

Hikari stood up. "Come on, Tobi. Take me to the kitchen."

_**Zipideedooda**_

I thought this was a good stopping point. Please let me know how this chapter turned out. It is currently 3:15 am, so I need to get some sleep. This might not be my best chapter (especially since I wrote so late at night) but it's not my worst either. But it's not too particularly funny either, but I got some good development there. It was a pretty serious chapter. Well, please review...zzz...


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys! While I should be studying for my AP exams some more, I came up with this particular plot bunny. It could possibly be the most annoying bunny in the world. It came up to me during my practice AP exam (which counted as my final grade) and begged me to write it. It certainly distracted me. I was going to wait to write this chapter till after the AP's, but I realized that if I didn't want to be distracted by my plot bunnies during the actual exam, I should probably write it now. So here you go, on with the story!

Disclaimer:

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari would not have believed her eyes. She hadn't thought the kitchen would be this bad. The sink was overflowing with dirty dishes and the refrigerator had mold in it. Plates half full of burnt food littered the table... At least it was before Hikari got her hands on it.

Now, the kitchen was sparkling. Hikari wiped the sweat off her brow. It had taken three hours of scrubbing, washing, and cleaning (and not to mention threatening: Tobi didn't want to help. Too bad he escaped) before it sparkled.

Hikari sighed with satisfaction. Cleaning was boring, tedious work, but at least now she could make some food without worrying about contamination.

She started pawing though the refrigerator for something to cook. She settled for scrambled eggs, made with the eggs she found in the refrigerator. She hadn't found any salt, so they were pretty bland, but it was better than the toast that Tobi had presented to her hours earlier.

Speaking of which, she was supposed to finding ways to escape, until she got distracted by Tobi, his toast and the Akatsuki's filthy kitchen. Well, now she had a much more freedom of movement, but if she went outside the kitchen, she was likely to get caught. And if she stayed in here, there was absolutely no point to her freedom. At least her prison had a toilet and blankets. She sat there and mused for a while, before her eyes fell on the large vent over the stove. A large grin spread over her face.

She grabbed a knife, and used as a screwdriver, carefully removing all the screws. As soon as the screen was removed, she looked up into the vent. It would probably be big enough to fit her. She hoisted herself up onto the counter top and started to climb into vent. Unfortunately the vent was a straight up vertical climb. Fortunately, Hikari still could climb up due to the tree climbing exercises she had practiced, just a week ago. The hard part was applying her chakra to her hands and pulling herself up. She didn't have that much upper body strength.

When she was only two feet in, a hand grabbed her ankle. She jumped in surprise.

"Who are you, and why are you in our kitchen vent?"

She looked down and saw blonde hair. So it was Deidara. She kicked at his hand with her free foot and to her surprise, he let go.

"None of your business!" She replied and continued her upward climb. She had to move fast, seeing as she had almost been caught. Hikari hoped she could reach another vent, hopefully on the outside, before Deidara could figure out how to get her down. She had just pulled herself out of his reach.

Unfortunately, Deidara contained more mental capabilities than she would have hoped for. A small clay spider climbed up the side of the vent, far faster than she ever could. As soon as it had made its way in front of her, it started to bulge and distend. It would explode soon.

Her options were limited. She could either drop, suffer a few bruises and get captured, or take an explosion head on, then drop, suffer a few bruises and get captured.

"_I wish I knew a few raiton jutsus." _Hikari thought before she let go. She landed heavily on the stove and a few pots were sent clattering over the edge. As soon as she did, the little bug above her exploded, letting a few small pieces of debris shower over her.

"Dropped before you could take the attack, huh?" Deidara said as he grabbed her wrist, "That's clever of you."

Hikari glared at him and tried to reclaim her wrist, but Deidara kept a firm grip. His single visible eye widened in recognition.

"Hey, you're that girl that Itachi took from the Kyuubi-kid!" He grinned and wagged a finger. "Naughty naughty, trying to escape."

The next second, Hikari had yanked Deidara closer to her and her forehead bashed into his. Surprised by this unexpected attack, Deidara reeled backwards and tripped over a chair, leaving Hikari to make her escape.

Hikari ran as fast as she could, making random decisions when she came to forks.

Right, left, right right, left. How big was this place anyways?

Left, left, right, left, right, right. And where in the world was the door out of here?

Left, right, left, left, right, left. She getting really tired.

Right, left, le- Hikari crashed into something hard and fell on her butt.

It was Itachi.

"Eheh... hi?" she said sheepishly.

Hikari got up slowly, cautiously, then whipped some sort of a paper packet at him and took off. She had filled it with pepper during her time in the kitchen. Hopefully, this would give her some sort of a head start. Unfortunately, the packet wasn't loose enough; no pepper came spraying out. Itachi sped forward, and hit the pressure point at the base of her neck. She passed out immediately.

Itachi picked her up and started walking back to her prison. He couldn't believe her audacity. To have tried such a flimsy, amateur distraction was either courageous or idiotic; he couldn't tell which. She had certainly given him some problems. He had been searching for her for quite some time. It was quite a big base. Itachi wondered where she had gone...

_**Zipideedooda**_

When Hikari came to, she realized two things: she had a pounding headache, and she was back in her room, collar firmly in place. She sighed. On that excursion, she didn't see any signs of an exit, much less the exit itself. This entire compound was built like a maze, and any hope of her getting through the kitchen vent vanished when Deidara caught her. She wouldn't get away from him again. The surprise attack only worked because of that: It was a surprise. Now that they knew what to expect, they would be prepared.

As for Itachi, well, it was worth a shot, even though it ended up with her having sore spots. She noted that she need to find a way to let the pepper escape from the packet more efficiently. Speaking of which... Hikari searched her pockets, and cursed when she found that Itachi had relieved her of all her pepper packets.

It was then that Itachi walked in.

"Hey, Ita-kun."

"How do you know my name and why have you bastardized it?"

"Oh, that patronizing, idiot blonde hermaphrodite let it slip." Hikari grinned cheekily. "And I like nicknames."

Then, something happened that made Hikari sit up and brighten. Probably because Itachi had recognized who she was talking about from her less-than-flattering description.

"Was that an eensy, weensy tiny smile I just saw? Was it? C'mon, do it again! You never smile! Turn that frown upside down!" Hikari proceeded to force her own cheeks upwards with her fingers.

Itachi's frown remained firmly in place.

"I would like to know why you cleaned the kitchen."

"It was filthy! I found three different kinds of mold in your refrigerator! How in the world do you guys live like this?"

Itachi ignored her question.

"How did you meet," Itachi paused, hiding a smirk, "-the hermaphrodite?"

"Oh, he found me trying to climb up the kitchen vent. I would have almost made it too."

"You tried to climb through our vent."

"Yeah, after I armed myself with the pepper packets. I guess I should have practiced with them first."

Incredulity and bewilderment roiled inside Itachi, but it didn't show on his face. He was dealing with a civilian, he reminded himself, who was only at the level of an academy student, probably worse. But that didn't explain why she was so crazy. Ninjas usually reached her level of insanity after they became jounin.

"So in summary, you escaped from this room, went and cleaned our kitchen, which I'll assume took a long time since it was filthy, before 'arming' yourself with small," Itachi tried to find the right word, "-distraction devices and attempting to climb up a vent. After being caught, you somehow incapacitated an S-rank criminal long enough to escape and run aimlessly around."

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds stupid," she grumbled.

"It was stupid."

"I would have lasted longer if the pepper packet had worked properly."

"Only if you had hit me."

"I had the element of surprise."

Was he being treated lightly? Or was he being underestimated? Or did she just not care? How could she proceed like nothing bad had happened?

Anger welled up inside of him as Itachi grabbed Hikari by the shoulders and shook her.

"Is this all just a game to you? Don't you realize what kind of situation you're in?"

Hikari felt the stirrings of anger. "Of course I realize what my situation is! But what good would it do me if I just sat around in this room doing nothing! I don't know if you know this but being a hostage is damn boring! I might as well be doing something that could be semi-useful!"

The two were nose to nose as they glared at each other.

Then Itachi snorted.

Hikari looked on in bewilderment as Itachi began to chuckle under his breath. She really didn't see what was so funny.

"What's so funny?" Hikari demanded.

"Well, for one, you don't realize what you're saying is ridiculous. I'm leaving. I don't want to catch your idiot disease."

"I don't have an idiot disease! I'm this way naturally!"

Itachi rolled his eyes. Hewas half way out the door before Hikari called, "Wait!"

Turning around, Itachi asked, "Now what?"

"Er, since this is a large place I'm getting the feeling there are a lot more of you guys, so um-"

"If you don't get to the point, I'm leaving."

She blushed and asked, "Do you guys have any female...er...compatriots?"

"Maybe, why?" Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"I need to ask her something."

"I'll pass along the message."

Her face flaming red, she shook her head violently. "NO! Just bring her here."

Now Itachi was curious. "No. Tell me."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No, and that's final."

"Then you won't get to send your message."

Hikari looked like she had just shoved a lemon slice into her mouth. "Okay, fine," she sighed, "Go ask her if she can lend me any tampons."

Itachi wished that he had just brought Konan here.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Since Hikari refused to eat anything cooked by an Akatsuki member(for good reason too), Itachi let her into the kitchen periodically to cook. She ended up cooking for more than just herself, because she would feel bad if she was the only one in the base to have a decent meal regularly (Itachi thought it was ridiculous but he liked decent food so he said nothing). Of course, Itachi watched her, so she couldn't try and escape again. Itachi also continued his interrogations, but they usually proved fruitless because, not only would Hikari lie to every single question asked, she would deny that she was lying. She had denied she that was lying when she said 2+2=5. It was ridiculous. But she was still an enigma. Her actions when Itachi invaded the Uchiha compound were perplexing. If she was going to protect Naruto, why did she hire him and his teammates to protect her? She had known why they were going after Naruto. How? It was the best kept secret in Konoha. How could a little civilian girl ferret out such secret in only a few months? Unless she was a spy? But then she wouldn't protect the blond idiot. One day, Itachi would find out. No matter what.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari was making a blanket fort when she got an unexpected guest

"Ah!" She exclaimed, pointing at him, "Patronizing, idiot blonde hermaphrodite!"

Deidara twitched.

"Patronizing, idiot blonde hermaphrodite?" he repeated angrily, "I am not a hermaphrodite!"

"Then explain why you look like a girl!"

"Don't get all prejudiced just because I have prettier hair than you! Itachi has pretty hair, but you don't call him a hermaphrodite!"

"That's because he doesn't look like a girl! Besides! You're still patronizing, and an idiot!"

"I'm perfectly entitled to be patronizing! You're our hostage! You were the one stupid enough to get caught!"

"Well, excuse me for not being able to fight off S-ranked criminals. I'm not even a ninja! And you can't deny that you're an idiot! Who was the one that let the little civilian girl escape!"

Deidara fumed. "Well, you're a- a- rude little bitch!"

Hikari scoffed. "Weak."

"Strange-minded weirdo."

"And proud of it."

"Loud-mouthed son of a bitch!"

"I'm not a 'son.' Fail."

Deidara floundered.

"Take that, you lead-footed, ham-handed, flea-bitten, lily-livered, shit-for-brains!" crowed Hikari triumphantly.

"Lily-livered?"

"It's a Shakespearean insult."

"What's Shakespearean?"

"None of your business."

"Of course it's my business. It's my business to get up in your business."

"Well you can butt out."

"No." Then Deidara smiled fakely. "How about you answer some questi-"

"Hermaphrodite."

A vein bulged in Deidara's forehead. "How did you know we were afte-"

"Hermaphrodite."

"Come on now, I wouldn't want to do anything ba-"

"Hermaphrodite."

"I'm warni-"

"Hermaphrodite."

"THAT'S IT!"

Deidara lunged at Hikari, who flinched. The blond shinobi ended up tackling empty air.

Deidara growled behind him, "Itachi, don't interfere!"

Itachi had snatched up Hikari before Deidara could attack her, leaving her slung over his shoulder.

"You're supposed to be getting information from her, not attacking her. I thought you might have the patience to do this job. I suppose I have overestimated you again."

Deidara whipped around, and thrust a hand into his pouch of clay. "Itachi," he growled, "You're gonna pay!"

Hikari could feel Itachi tense.

"Deidara." A foreign voice cut through the tension.

"Sasori-danna!" Surprise filtered through Deidara's voice. "I thought you wouldn't be back till tomorrow!"

"I finished early. You know I hate to keep people waiting, but now I find myself waiting for you to stop this foolishness. We have our next project."

"Sorry." Deidara straightened from his battle stance and walked out the door. The last glare he shot them sent the message- this wasn't over yet.

After the both of them left, Hikari breathed a sigh of relief and Itachi set her down.

"Thanks, Ita-kun."

Itachi looked her in the eye. "You shouldn't aggravate powerful criminals. It has a way of shortening your life-span."

Hikari blinked then asked incredulously, "Are you worrying about me?"

He said, "No," but she saw that the back of his neck had turned slightly pink.

She didn't push it. What she did say was, "Sasuke has turned pretty bitter since you left him."

Hikari was immediately nose to nose with a glaring Itachi. She could feel his hand loosely circling her neck, ready to choke her at a moments notice.

"How do you know about it?"

"Hmm... should I tell you?"

In reply, Itachi tightened his grip a little.

Hikari ignored it. "Hmm, would it matter very much?"

A vein bulged in Itachi's forehead.

"Nah, not really," Hikari grinned. "You're related to him. You're probably his only relative left. I haven't seen any of his family for all the time I had been living in his house and the family resemblance between the two of you is unmistakeable. And he's still in Konoha and you're," she shrugged, "Well, you're here."

Itachi held her gaze for a few moments. Despite the fact his hand was still wrapped around her throat, her clear brown eyes were free from fear.

He let her go.

"He's reacted pretty badly. Probably bad enough to follow Orochimaru down the road of corruption. You should probably stop it. It'll just cause bad things in the future, for everyone."

She was saying that Orochimaru had designs on Sasuke. And it wouldn't be good for anyone. She was telling the truth. All those interrogations before had told him that she was a decent liar, but not enough to fool him. Unless Hikari had some how spontaneously acquired super lying skills, she was telling the truth. How could she know any of this? He couldn't resist asking

"How can you know?" he asked her softly, "It's like you can see the future."

Hikari just smiled.

Seeing he wouldn't getting any more information from her, he started for the door. But before he exited, he turned around and said, "If there was a time to start telling the truth, it would be next time. Leader-sama is getting impatient. And if we need force to get what we want, then so be it."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Kisame was waiting for Itachi outside the door.

"So, Deidara lost his temper, huh? The entire purpose of him doing the interrogation was to get her mad enough to spill information. Tch, the idiot, losing his temper first."

Itachi sighed. "He's going to want revenge."

The shark-man snorted. "For this little incident? Not likely."

"He will," said Itachi, "He doesn't like being treated lightly by anyone, much less a civilian like her."

Kisame grinned. "Whatcha gonna do?"

"I will watch him. He'll take it out on the girl first."

"Oh, by the way. Pein-sama was already pissed at you for bringing her here, and sacrificing the base. He says he needs some kind of results soon, or it would end badly for you. You have exactly one week."

"He can't complain. I was the one who got us this base. And don't worry about it," he replied, "I have something in mind."

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari wondered about her most recent encounter with the clay user. Deidara wasn't likely to back off. She rubbed the back of her neck. Maybe she had pissed him off a bit too much. But if his weakness was raiton jutsu, regular electricity might work as well. All she would really need was a bucket of water and an extension cord. It might work. It could also get her killed, but there was a possibility.

And then there was the matter of the interrogations. So far, she figured that they wanted to know how she knew her stuff. Well, even if she told the truth, it wasn't likely that they would believe her. She might not have believed it happened, if it hadn't happened to her. It was the kind of thing that only happened in fanfictions. How did she get here anyways? If she was ever going back to her family, she would have to find out. Her best chances lay with Konoha, even if they weren't the most technologically advanced village, they were probably the only ones that would help her from the goodness of their hearts.

Hikari twiddled with her thumbs. In the mean time, she would have to just try to survive her treacherous situation. Nothing horrible had happened to her yet, but that still could change. Deidara, was definitely threatening, and she wouldn't be able to defend against him, unless she could get her hands on that extension cord. Sasori seemed uninterested in her, which made her pretty safe from him- unless of course, he decided he wanted to make a puppet out of her. Tobi wouldn't try and kill her, at least, not until Deidara kicked the bucket. Kisame wouldn't do anything, not with Itachi around. The blue man respected him enough to respect his wishes.

Itachi, however, was another story. Hikari trusted him, but she realized he was still the enemy. Which meant that he couldn't be trusted. He hadn't done anything particularly harmful to her, and had saved her from Deidara. He had a relatively short temper, but always stopped before hurting her. He was collected and mature- her exact opposite, but they did get along well. And who was she kidding? Hikari blushed a little. Itachi was hot. And there was that warning of his from their last encounter... Hikari had no idea what to think of it. If she did tell the truth, no one would believe her. There was nothing she could do about it. Hikari groaned.

It was then that Itachi walked in. Hikari said, "Hey Ita-kun, what's up?" She really didn't expect him to answer.

Her expectations were satisfied when he ignored her question. What she didn't expect was for Itachi to shove a small glass bottle filled with clear liquid under her nose. The liquid had a bitter scent, like medicine.

"Drink it."

Hikari stumbled backwards, surprised by his sudden motion. "What? No! How stupid do you think I am? What kind of stuff is that?"

"You'll find out when you take it," said Itachi, who was advancing as Hikari was stepping back.

"No! It could be anything! Poison or a truth serum!" Hikari's hands flew to her mouth, to keep him from putting that bottle to her lips. Even if he got it into her mouth, she'd spit it right back out.

Itachi chuckled. "There's no such thing as a truth serum, though this is close. It'll help me get inside your head. I would have put it in your food, but it's really pungent. Since you were the one cooking, you'd be able to tell immediately."

Hikari's eyes darted around the room, for something, anything she might be able to use to smash the small bottle. She settled for whipping her pillow at him, trying to take the bottle from his grip, one hand still firmly over her mouth.

Immediately, Itachi grabbed her makeshift weapon and yanked it out of her hand.

"I expected some difficulty."

He grabbed Hikari's wrists, imprisoning them in one of his hands. Hikari tried to yank away, but he kept a firm grip on her. With his free hand he lifted the bottle to his lips and drank the contents but didn't swallow.

The next thing Hikari knew, Itachi had brought down his lips on his. Her eyes widened as her heart flipped. The liquid slid from his mouth to hers, and she was about to spit it out when Itachi's tongue entered her mouth as well and pushed it down her throat. She felt the bitter liquid slide down, and responded by chomping on his tongue.

As he jerked away from her, Hikari had a minor panic attack, while blushing redder than a tomato. On one hand, he had forced her to drink the concoction that would probably make her spill all her secrets, and might end up dead because of said secrets. After all, when the Akatsuki found out that she knew almost all of their abilities, they wouldn't be very happy with her.

On the other hand, Itachi had _kissed_ her. Not only was it a French kiss, it was also her first kiss. Her heart was beating as fast as a hummingbirds wings, and her face felt so hot, she thought she could melt a stick of butter on her forehead.

Emotions roiled inside Hikari. Anger, shock, frustration and to her surprise, excitement and happiness swirled inside of her, leaving a very confused girl.

She was so preoccupied with her emotions that she didn't notice Itachi flip through the series of hand seals needed to earn him a trip through Hikari's memory lane.

_**Zipideedoodaa**_

Omake #1:

"Itachi, speak up, I can't hear you. What did you say?" Konan asked irritably. After all, Itachi had interrupted her during an experiment of hers that had been waiting for weeks. She was trying to find an explosive compound that would only detonate to a certain frequency. She even had a recorder so she could take notes hands free. But now Itachi, who usually had a good reason for interrupting, was just mumbling.

He only mumbled louder.

Konan turned around. If he was just going to waste her time, she was getting back to her experiments.

"No, wait!"

Konan looked back at him, waiting.

"CouldIhavesometampons?"

Konan laughed inwardly. Did he just say what she thought he said? She couldn't resist. "Excuse me, say that again?"

Itachi sighed. "Could I have some tampons?"

Konan laughed out loud this time. "Sure, just one moment."

Konan turned back into the lab to fetch the aforementioned feminine products. Wait until he found out that her recorder was still on.

Omake #2: Once upon a time, a gang of bandits lived in the Akatsuki base. Then Itachi found it. You may complete the story yourself.

Omake #3: The next thing Hikari knew, Itachi had brought down his lips on his. Her eyes widened as her heart flipped. The liquid slid from his mouth to hers, and she was about to spit it out when Itachi's tongue entered her mouth as well and pushed it down her throat. She felt the bitter liquid slide down her throat, then heard, "Hikari-san, Tobi has- OMG! Itachi-san and Hikari-san are doing bad things!"

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hey guys! This is the longest chapter I've ever written! More that 4000 words, including the omakes!The three that I stuck in at the end were things that might have happened, what did happen, and what didn't happen respectively. They were pretty amusing I think.

And yes, they kissed, much earlier than in the original version. This does NOT mean that they'll automatically fall for each other, or even that they are admitting that they like each other. Don't forget the obvious, ulterior motives to this kiss. As far as they know, they think that the other only saw the kiss as a way to deliver the "truth serum." And also, if there isn't an actual compound that forces people to tell the truth. It just does funny things to their head that makes them talk more. The subject in question might confuse reality and fantasy. So basically, it's almost exactly like getting them drunk. Does anyone actually read these things? I know that there isn't a truth serum in the Naruto world, or Morino Ibiki, would be completely out of work.

So yeah, I finally satisfied my plot bunny and am now free to concentrate on my AP exams. Gah, I'm dreading it. I don't wanna fail! But on the bright side, after it's over, my APUSH teacher has promised to have a talent shows, throw a party, watch movies and rewrite the new Texas history book. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, I'll be able to write the next chapter soon. It might be a couple of days, but I think I'm off to a good start! Well, good bye y'all, good luck to those of you who need to take the AP's and review!

P.S. If you are not taking the AP exams, you might not have noticed that these chapters are really belated; that's because I had 4, then 5 unpublished chapters at once and decided to post them with a week between them each. Otherwise, it would destroy the point of chapters. So yeah.


	9. Chapter 9

Hey guys, here I am, writing the next chapter to this story. Although I told you that it might take a few days to write this chapter, here I am writing, the day after. Even though I should be doing my hideous amount of homework and studying for my next AP. I'd tell you about my last one, but the proctor lady said that if I did, they would cancel my score. And since this is being published online, well, you get it. There's only a couple more days till I reach my post-AP happiness...I'm very excited. No more worrying about huge exams! Well, until HSAs. And finals. Bleh.

Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto, nor the Bleach reference a ways down.

_**Zipideedooda**_

Hikari opened her eyes blearily. Where was this place? She didn't recognize the strange suburbs she found herself in. Each house was unique, a different color, shape, design. There were dark houses, cheery houses, serene houses, houses that had strange, psychedelic patterns.

Hikari went up to the closest house, which was a cherry red. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. When she tried the doorknob it was unlocked. Tentatively, Hikari stepped in and shut the door behind her. She saw herself, and Itachi kissing, in her prison. A bright red blush colored Hikari's face, and she hurried out of the house.

"What is this place?" She thought out loud.

"As far as I can tell, this is the inside of your mind," said a voice right next to her.

Hikari jumped, then saw it was Itachi. She blushed a little, the memory she just saw bright in her mind. That kind of thing would be of no use here. She shoved it to the back of her mind.

"Does this always happen?" she asked.

"I don't know. I've never done this jutsu before."

"But you should have heard something about it."

"No, this is the first time this jutsu has been performed."

"WHAT? You put me under a jutsu that hasn't been tested before? What was that liquid? It won't kill me will it?"

Itachi chuckled. "No, it was mainly a liquified form of my chakra. I needed an anchor point inside your mind."

Hikari made a face. "Your chakra tastes like medicine."

Itachi ignored her. "These houses seem to be your memories. What's inside this one?" he said, gesturing towards the cherry red house she had just came out of.

"Uh, nothing!" Hikari said nervously, blocking the door. "It's not important, really."

Itachi raised an eyebrow.

"Eheh, let's move on!" Hikari said, pointing to the house across the street.

Itachi ignored her, and purposefully walked forward.

"No, don't go that way!" Hikari grabbed onto his cloak and tried to pull him backwards. He brushed her off easily.

He entered the house, dragging Hikari with him. When they were inside, Hikari, once again, saw Itachi kissing her.

Hikari groaned a little. "This is so embarrassing."

Itachi looked around and saw a white sheet of paper tacked onto the wall. "What's this?"

He read quickly. "It's a transcript of your thoughts."

Hikari whipped her head around to look at him. "What!"

Itachi smirked. "This was your first kiss?"

Hikari turned bright red and threw her shoe at him.

_**Zipideedooda**_

They next house was a muted yellow.

Inside, Hikari was just sitting down, thinking. Itachi found the transcript of her thoughts and read it.

"A bucket of water and an extension cord?"

Hikari smiled. "It could work."

Itachi rolled his eyes.

As they traveled down Memory Lane, the memories were getting earlier and earlier, from the time Deidara caught her in the vent, to the first time Hikari molded chakra. The house that held the memory that Itachi erased looked like it had been boarded up, but it was still intact.

Finally, they came to Hikari's passage into the Naruto world.

Hikari blocked the way to the orange house. "You don't want to see this. This is not a good place. You just want to go back to the real world now."

Itachi merely picked her up, set her behind him, and continued along the path. This was important. This was the memory that would explain where Hikari was from.

Itachi reached for the doorknob.

"NO!" Hikari came running from behind and slapped his hand away. He tried again, and Hikari slapped it again. She glared at him defiantly.

Itachi ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed. Then he picked up Hikari and slung her over his shoulder.

"Oof!" Hikari said, "This is becoming a pattern, isn't it?"

Itachi ignored her, and opened the door, into Hikari's room.

As soon as they stepped in, memory-Hikari screamed, "NOO! Kakashi can't die!"

Itachi raised an eyebrow. Hikari paled. That statement made her incredibly suspicious. Kakashi was fine! And she wasn't supposed to know him yet.

"Shut up! It's only a manga! Go to sleep, it's eleven o'clock!"

Both of Itachi's eyebrows shot up. He looked at Hikari, who had turned a ghostly pale color. Inside, Hikari was panicking. Itachi would know. He stepped to take a closer look at the volumes on her bed. Hikari could have slapped herself. The one that was closest to him had his own face on the cover.

She watched Itachi carefully. How must he be feeling? Incredulity at the very least. He could be angry. After all, he just found out that his entire world was, until very recently, just entertainment to her. He'd want to know everything she did. And that meant him staying longer in her mind. She did like her privacy.

Hikari watched as memory-Hikari stormed outside her room, only to find herself in Konoha's forest. It was incredibly disorienting, she remembered.

"Come on, Hikari-kun*, let's go." Itachi said. As he walked out the door, he missed Hikari's look of surprise.

_He called me by name..._

As they traveled through Hikari's memories of her world, she got more and more homesick. Memories of her passing a test, going out with her friends, even the time she broke a window because the boys underneath it had been smoking. Then there was her family- her little sister, Mitsu, and her parents. Mitsu, the boy-band loving girl who wanted to be a singer, her head full of daydreams. Her father had wrinkles and warm smile, as well as the head full of dreams that her little sister inherited. Her mother was a workaholic, which kept her busy most of the day, but she always found time for her daughters.

Hikari missed them desperately.

And then her friends, Akari and Rima, who were so different from each other, they were day and night. Akari was the bubbly, happier of the pair, who had skills with the pen and dreams of becoming a mangaka. Rima was the calmer and collected and mature one, who focused herself on becoming an architect. The two were her best friends. She had comforted Akari after her first boyfriend had broken up with her, and consoled Rima when her parents had gotten divorced. They had both helped her through... what was it again? She couldn't remember. She only remembered that she had been desperately unhappy for a very long time afterward. Try as she might, she couldn't remember what had happened.

Well, that didn't matter. She just wished Akari and Rima were here with her. Dammit, she was so very homesick.

Finally, they came to a house that suspiciously looked like...

"The Hokage tower?" asked Itachi.

"Woah, in my own head!" She nodded with approval. "Very realistic."

Itachi walked in. Instead of the memory playing out in front of them as usual, rows and rows of manga books presented themselves in front of them. Itachi picked up a book and began to read. Hikari grabbed another volume and started reading as well. After all, reading manga always helped her take her mind off her troubles.

Itachi read volume after volume, learning what Konoha would be like in the future, how Naruto would grow, and especially, his little brother.

He saw what would become of Sasuke, how the darkness inside his heart would consume him. Then, he reached the part about his final battle, and what he would do for his little brother. He also read what happened after he had died, when Madara told Sasuke everything, and what Sasuke had done with that knowledge. That meant, that Hikari also knew, what he had done, and why. When he reached the end of the book, he saw that there was a little note, containing Hikari's thoughts when she read the book. He was surprised to see that Hikari had _cried_. For him, when he had died. He glanced up at her, reading intently. He checked to see what she was reading. He didn't recognize any of the characters.

"What are you reading?"

Hikari looked up at him, and showed him the cover. A middle aged man in a black cloak was upside down on the cover. The word Bleach, indicated the title of the series.

"Where did you get that?"

"Oh, I got bored, so I went across the street to the Urahara Shoten."

Itachi rolled his eyes. Exactly how many different mangas did she read?

"Which one were you reading?" she asked.

He displayed the volume in his hand.

"Oh." Judging from her expression, she knew exactly what was in that volume.

"You alright?" Hikari looked up at him, eyes shining with concern. After all, he had just saw himself die, and all his darkest secrets were spilled out onto the page. That must have dealt him quite a blow.

Instead of answering, he said, "You knew the entire time? What happened and why?"

Hikari nodded. "Well, yeah."

Itachi groaned a little. He needed sometime to think this through. Especially since he couldn't report this to Pein. Finding the truth, instead of making things simpler, only complicated them.

But there was something strange about Hikari. She probably didn't notice, but her family and friends were hiding something from her, and Itachi intended to find out. The answer would lie in her memories.

Itachi stood. He had read what he needed.

As he walked out the door, Hikari asked him, "Are we going back now?"

Itachi shook his head. "I want to find something."

Hikari was confused. "Wha-? I thought you only wanted to find out how I knew all this stuff." She gestured towards the shelves.

"There is something else."

"What?"

Itachi ignored her.

Hikari was pretty annoyed. Since Itachi refused to tell her where he was going, she would have to force it out of him.

"Tell me." Poke.

"No."

"Tell me." Poke.

"No."

"Tell me." Poke.

"No."

"Tell me." Poke.

At this point, Itachi decided not to waste his breath anymore.

"Fine. Be that way. Go search by yourself. I'll be in the Urahara shoten if you need me."

Hikari set off towards the place where all her memories of Bleach resided.

"No, you're coming with me." Itachi picked up Hikari and deposited her on his shoulder.

"Seriously?" complained Hikari, "This is really getting old."

There was silence for a few moments before-

"Tell me." Poke.

Itachi sighed. "You'll see when we get there."

"Give me a hint."

"No."

"Get out of my head already."

Hikari noticed that most of the houses along the road were a dull, grey color. Just awhile back, the houses were bright and colorful. She frowned. This was the period of her life when she was depressed, only she didn't know why. She'd rather not be here.

Suddenly, Itachi stopped. Hikari craned her head over Itachi's shoulder, to see why.

"Oh no, you want to go in there!"

A house that was painted pitch black stood where he had stopped. It had boards nailed on all the doors and windows and bright yellow police lines surrounded it. Unlike the other houses, this one had an iron-wrought fence surrounding it, and Hikari could see a large padlock, chaining the gates together.

"Yes," came his simple reply.

"No. I don't want to remember. I'm perfectly okay with not knowing. It's definitely something bad."

"It's not healthy for memories to be bottled up like this."

"You're just curious, aren't you." Hikari glared at the back of his head.

"Partly."

"Oh yeah? What's the other part?"

"None of your business."

Hikari whacked him. "It's completely my business, you foul-mouthed, weasel-brained, fart-nugget! It's my head!"

Itachi glanced at her, amused. "Fart-nugget?"

"No one cares. Why do you want to know what's in that house?"

Itachi ignored her.

Hikari kicked him. He didn't even flinch, dammit. "Fine, don't tell me. But don't expect me to come with you."

"That's what you think."

Hikari flailed around for awhile, but Itachi managed to keep his grip on her.

Panting, Hikari gave up. "Damn you."

Meanwhile, Itachi had approached the gate.

Hikari groaned. "I really don't want to do this."

"It's good for you," said Itachi. "Repressed memories sometimes results in psychological disorders."

"At this point, I don't really care," grumbled Hikari. "Do we really have to?"

Itachi ignored her, and focused on the obstacles before him. Since this was Hikari's mind, he couldn't use any chakra. Itachi sighed. He set down Hikari, took out two lockpicks and started fiddling with the lock.

Hikari was caught between the desire to escape her unwanted memory, and her curiosity about the art of lockpicking. Her curiosity won out. She sat down next to him and watched as he wrestled the intricate device. Eventually, Itachi took out two more picks and then he was able to open the lock.

"Well, that took you long enough," said Hikari.

"I haven't needed these in a long time. I'm out of practice."

"Do we have to go in?" asked Hikari. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Yes. The bad feeling is all in your head."

Hikari rolled her eyes.

When they came to the boarded up door, Itachi took out a kunai and started prying at the nails. Hikari took this opportunity to try and sneak out of the gate.

"Oh no you don't." Itachi seized Hikari's hand, pulling her towards him. He secured one arm around her, leaving one arm to work, but she still couldn't get away.

Hikari sighed and leaned against him. Itachi was probably right. It wasn't healthy to keep stuff bottled up. However, there was a reason why this memory was locked up right now, and she wasn't willing to find out why.

When Itachi had removed the boards from the door, she felt an overwhelming wave of dread.

"It-" she began to say, but Itachi had already opened the door.

Inside, the scene unfolded before them.

Memory-Hikari and her family were walking down the side of a busy road. Next to Hikari...was a person who could have been her mirror image...Hitomi.

Hikari gasped in shock as a flow of memories came back to her. Her twin, Hitomi had been her polar opposite. Calm and serious, bubbly and immature, the pair had complemented each other extremely well. The one point they had the most in common, was their undeniable stubbornness.

That was the one part of them that had made this day so terrible.

"Don't tell me you keep your side of the room clean. It's only that way because you dump all your stuff on my side of the room."

"I do not! That's your stuff on your side of the room. If you weren't so messy and immature, you wouldn't be blaming me for this kind of stuff!"

Tears began to fall as Hikari began to remember exactly what had happened on this day. She couldn't tear her eyes from the scene, of her and her twin, bickering.

"Alright you two! Stop it already! Just the both of you, clean your own side of the room!"

"Exactly!" said Hitomi, looking triumphant.

"No way! That's her stuff on my floor! Why do I have to pick up after her!"

"That's because you were the one borrowing my stuff, and leaving it on the floor!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Memory-Hikari stalked off angrily, while Hitomi turned around, crossed her arms and humphed angrily. Mitsu approached Hitomi, pulling on her arm.

"Come on, Hitomi-neesan, we should go."

At the same time, Hikari's dad was trying to soothe memory-Hikari. Both of the twins at the same time said, "It's her fault! She apologizes first!"

Mitsu gave up. She returned to her parents, where they discussed what was the best course of action from here.

"Oh no! Not again!" Hikari tore herself from Itachi's grasp and dashed across the street and attempted to tackle Hitomi, just as a drunk driver careened around the corner and headed straight towards Hitomi. Hikari passed through Hitomi, but the car slammed straight into her. There was a loud, sickening crunch. As memory-Hikari had just turned around and viewed the wreckage, the real Hikari dropped down on her hands and knees and trembled violently.

Itachi headed towards Hikari. Tears were flowing from her eyes, but she didn't wipe them away. Itachi wiped them away for her. Seeing that she wasn't about to move, Itachi picked her up, and exited the house, where police lights began to flash behind them.

It was thundering outside, and raining in sheets. They were going to get very wet, but Itachi couldn't take them back into the house. That was not an option.

Instead, he found a spot under a tree, and examined Hikari. She was still crying albeit, silently. She seemed to be in a state of shock.

Awkwardly, Itachi tried to comfort her. "Shh, it's okay. Everything will be fine."

Hikari faced him, despair apparent in her eyes.

"Okay? How could it be okay? _I forgot my own twin!"_

_**Zipideedooda**_

*Just so you know, the suffix -kun can be used for girls as well. It's less formal that -san and more formal than -chan, which is used most of the time for girls. (I think at least. Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

How's that for angst? This chapter took me quite a while, but I can't believe I just spent eleven pages hanging out in Hikari's head. My problem with this chapter was that I wanted to write this fic from Hikari's point of view, but I kept slipping into Itachi's point of view. He's easier to write but at the same time harder to keep in character. I mean, there are practically no examples of how Itachi would act in a normal environment. Even the time before he massacred the clan, he was cold to every one, except Sasuke, and then he was acting brotherly. If I want Hikari and Itachi to be together as a couple, he can't be brotherly. I had to go back and rewrite a lot of it. And that last line caused a bit of trouble for me. Is it worse to forget someone so close to you completely? Or worse that you believe that you killed said person? Well, I figured that since it's not really true that Hikari actively killed Hitomi, it is true that Hikari forgot about her. I hope this chapter didn't completely suck. My inspiration is starting to go down so the ideas aren't flowing as easily. Still, I want to put them down before I forget them, so I'm just churning out chapters. Chances are, I'm going to start chapter 10, very very very soon.


	10. DISCONTINUATION

Okay, I just realized that I forgot to upload a discontinuation notice for this fic. Late by a full year. I suck, I know. I deleted chapter 10 because I felt it sucked too badly to be seen ever again, and I have now lost the document, so that's it for that.

I'm quite sorry to see this story go, seeing as it's my first piece of fiction that I've done on my own volition. I just lost all contact with my characters and didn't know who the hell I was supposed to writing anymore. It's sad when that happens. Your characters just leave you and never come back. The only way to not miss them terribly is to not write them anymore.

That being said, both versions of Sucked In, will stay up for sentimentality's sake, and for who ever wants to read this stuff. Frankly, I'd be surprised if you did, but then again, fanfiction quality isn't expected to be top notch.

Also, I have pretty much moved out of the Naruto Fandom. Don't expect to see me write in this fandom anymore. I just don't have much inspiration for it anymore. I'm working on a Pokemon fanfiction right now, and hopefully it will be better than this one. I've spent a lot of time planning it out and writing and rewriting, and when I've reached a certain point, I'll start uploading chapters. This is because I want to try and update on a weekly schedule, and I'm a very erratic writer, depending on my writer's blocks, school work and motivation.

So, at any rate, thank you all for reading and bearing with me until now. I'm happy that you guys have invested time in my stories, and your reviews have helped out as a writer. Writing these was a wonderful experience, and I'm thankful for it.

Thank you again.

Also, because I don't want our ever appreciated admins to delete this entry, here is a random preview of what I've written in my Pokemon Fanfiction so far.

I circle above the building in the night sky, my metal wings clacking as they worked. Below, I can spot a green and white figure, waving up at me. Mystic's there to welcome me back.

I alight on the roof, folding my wings carefully into their sheaths.

Mystic works here at the Hoenn Pokemon Lab as an assistant. She's older than me by almost a decade, but she's my best friend. And really my only friend too, outside of my family. She's a Flygon hybrid so she's got giant green wings and a long tail. Her dark green hair is always swept into a long ponytail and she always wears her lab coat. She's always the one to give us missions because all the humans are too busy. I always wonder why she never goes on missions like us Skarmory hybrids, because she must be pretty powerful. We only have a couple of hybrids so we need all the manpower we can get.

"Did you finish the mission?" she asks.

I hold out the documents in my hand as an answer.

"Excellent, Ferra. You're the best field agent we have."

I blush at the praise, turning my dark skin darker.

"Aw, I'm sure there others who are better! I'm gonna go grab some food, you wanna come with?"

Mystic shakes her head. "I gotta file these away,she says, waving the documents in the air. "Maybe I'll see you later."

"Alright!" I drop down through the hatch and sprint down the hall. That last mission was pretty darn easy. Just swoop in and grab the documents, and get out. There were a few complications, but nothing too bad. There had been an old man who had been set on protecting those documents, but I had knocked him out.

It wouldn't have been pretty, however, if one of my siblings had come for the documents. They all seemed to be more ruthless than me.

I run down to the dining hall where the food is. Flying around can really make a body hungry. You see, we all live in this giant compound, called the Hoenn Pokemon Lab. It's a really big place, with a library, dormitories, practice rooms and of course, laboratories, with a maze of gray hallways connecting them. We all live here, even the scientists. My family and I share room in the dormitories, but we all used to live in the science wing, on the other side of the compound, where we were tested to make sure we were functional. The tests were strange and uncomfortable, but they weren't painful. I suppose they tested my siblings before I did, so they knew what they were looking for. It was a cold place, I mean, not temperature wise, but that the scientists were cold. I try not to think about it too much. I grew up there without a family, but I have one now, and that's all I need.

The dining hall is huge. It's a lot like a regular cafeteria, with a line for food, and tables spread across the floor, but this cafeteria spans about half a football field, and has a half-domed glass ceilings tall enough to for me to fly in here. I've always wanted to come crashing through that ceiling. Something out of a cheesy adventure story, but still.I grab a huge pile of food and head towards the table to chow down. Nearby, there is a pair of scientists talking. I don't want to listen in, but they're talking way too loudly.

"Experiment 94 is breaking down even further. It's DNA isn't stable. Why doesn't the Director let us try evolving it? That could stabilize him." says one scientist angrily.

"Experiment 94 is the first of its kind. It's to be expected that it would end like this. Besides, it's more valuable to use this way. We can find out what to fix next time. Besides, we don't even know if its possible for it to evolve, much less whether it will help." Unconcernedly, his companion takes another bite of food.

"I just hate seeing the poor thing suffer so badly. This isn't what I signed up for when I became a Pokemon researcher."

A lob of mashed potatoes lands on his face. "Shut up," the other scientist hisses, "Don't say that. You want to live, don't you?"

A swirl of uneasiness roils in my stomach. Quickly, I finish my meal and sprint out of the dining hall before I could hear anymore of the conversation.

That was the first I had heard of any deaths in compound. Failed experiments, sure, but not people. I mean, everything we do here is for the greater good, right?


End file.
